
Glass3£3C^ 



FRESKNTEI) liY 



SOCIAL AND PRIVATE 

LIFE AT ROME IN THE TIME OF 

PLAUTUS AND TERENCE 




BY 

GEORGIA WILLIAMS LEFFINGWELL, M. A. 

Sutro Fellow in History, Vaatar College 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1918 






Copyright, 


1918 


BY 




GEORGIA WILLIAMS LEFFINGWELL 


Gift 




^"•■^i.varssity 




OCT 25 018 





^ THE MEMORY OF 

PROFESSOR GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD 

AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS WORK WAS BEGUN AND WHOSE 

KINDLY GUIDANCE AND HELPFUL CRITICISM 

MADE POSSIBLE ITS COMPLETION 



CONTENTS 

PACK 

Introduction 9 

CHAPTER I 

Dwelling, Town and Country 

(a) Town-house and Furniture . . . . • 20 

(b) Country Estate 34 

CHAPTER n 
Women and Marriage 39 

CHAPTER HI 
Children and Education 

(a) Children • 57 

(b) General Education • 62 

(c) Higher Education — Cultural Studies 67 

CHAPTER IV 
Slaves jz 

CHAPTER V 
Freedmen and Clients • 91 

CHAPTER VI 
Finance and Industry 98 

CHAPTER VII 
Religion 113 

CHAPTER VIII 
Morals and Character 128 

Bibliography 138 

7] 7 



INTRODUCTION 

To assemble as far as possible the source evidence on 
social and private life at Rome during the first half of the 
second century B. C, and from this evidence to draw cer- 
tain conclusions which will give a clearer understanding of 
the habits of thought and the feelings of the average citizen 
of the time is the purpose of this study. 

While literary sources for Roman life in this period of 
the Republic are less available than for the Ciceronian age 
or for the Empire, a knowledge of the earlier period is of 
importance not only for its own sake as a critical moment 
in the history of Graeco-Roman civilization, but as a basis 
for comparison with later developments. The very fact of 
the scarcity of material and the consequent lack of informa- 
tion, in regard tO' this subject may be given as the chief 
reason for the present work. 

Roman life in the Imperial period has received a large 
amount of attention and been treated in exhaustive detail 
by modern writers, but the question of Roman life in the 
period of the Republic has been comparatively neglected. 
Warde Fowler in his Social Life at Rome in the age of 
Cicero embodies in his chapters a series of delightful 
sketches of conditions at the close of the Republican period, 
but the book throws little light on the century preceding the 
Ciceronian age, and in any case is of little value for refer- 
ence purposes. The larger works on Roman life, such as 
Marquardt's Privatlehen der Romer, devote some attention 
to Republican conditions. The statements, however, are 
scattered and more or less general, and the source references 
given are far from complete. 

9] 9 



lO SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [lo 

Contemporary literary sources for the period consist of 
the Histories of Polybius, the De re rustica of Cato, but most 
important, the dramatic works of Plautus and Terence. 
Any use of the plays of these two authors, as a source, neces- 
sarily involves a careful consideration of the question how 
far the material of the comedies is Roman, and how far it 
is simply a reproduction of the Greek, a fact which explains 
perhaps more than any other the absence of modern works 
dealing with the Roman life of that age. 

The generally recognized intermingling of both Greek 
and Roman elements in the comedies has resulted in a 
rather confusing habit on the part of many writers. The 
plays are drawn upon indiscriminately to illustrate or affirm 
various points of either Greek life or Roman life without 
any systematic attempt to define the reason for this arbi- 
trary choice. 

Modem writers differ in their judgment, but the general 
impression would appear to be that the plays are so largely 
Greek that they are of comparatively little value for infor- 
mation on Roman life and habits. Sellar voices this senti- 
ment in the definite statement that Plautus " had no 
intention of presenting to his audience the outward condi- 
tions of Roman or Italian life." In support of this he 
emphasizes the absence of all gentile designations among 
the richer personages of the comedies as in itself a sufficient 
proof. ^ 

The explanation, however, of this absence is both possible 
and easy. The contemporary poet was given very little 
license along certain lines. To mention Roman citizens by 
name or to allude to specific gentes involved considerable 
risk, vide the imprisonment which overtook the poet Naevius 
for his attacks on the Metelli. Doubtless it was safer and 

1 Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic (Oxford, 1905), p. 169. 



II] INTRODUCTION II 

more advisable, therefore, to avoid as far as possible any 
reference which might possibly be interpreted as a libelous 
reflection upon some sensitive citizen, and to adopt the 
avenue of safety offered by setting the scene ostensibly 
far from Rome. 

Wallon, who' draws extensively on Plautus as a source 
for Roman conditions, apparently has much this idea in 
mind when he says : " Le peuple romain voulait bien qu'on 
le jouat, mais seulement sous le costume grec; et il ne se 
fachait pas de voir soulever un coin du manteau, quand 
le rideau allait couvrir la scene." ^ The choice of the spot 
in which the action took place, moreover, did not rest en- 
tirely with the poet. As Oldfather tells us, " so far were 
the police from allowing the dignity of a Roman citizen to 
be diminished that, to all appearances, not even the fabida 
togaia might be set in Rome, but only in some town of the 
Latin Confederacy." ^ 

The second argument of Sellar is based upon the fact 
that there is no distinction in station among the personages 
except that of rich and poor, freeman and slave, and hence 
no recognition of " those great distinctions of birth, privi- 
lege, and political status, which were so pervading a charac- 
teristic of Roman life." This statement will be referred 
to again in the chapter on " Finance and Industry." It is 
sufficient to say at this point that the division of the charac- 
ters of the comedies on a basis of wealth and poverty is a 
reflection of one of the most striking characteristics of 
Roman society of the time. To quote from Duruy : 

The strife of classes sprang up again, and as in early times 
the city contained two distinct peoples. If time and law had 

^Wallon, Histoire de I'esclavage dans I'antiquite (Paris, 1879), vol. 
ii, p. 231. 
^Classical Weekly (1914), Oldfather, "Roman Comedy," p. 218. 



12 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [12 

almost effaced the distinction between patrician and plebeian, 
a higher barrier was now rising between rich and poor, the 
former growing prouder and more insolent, the latter more 
wretched and submissive.^ 

Furthermore the statement as to the lack of recognition 
of any political distinctions may be met by a citation of a 
few of the references in Plautus: dictator {Pseud. 415-6), 
quaestor {Bacc. 1075), praetor {Poen. 584-5), aediles 
(Men, 590), tresuiri {Aul, 416, Asin. 131), senatus (Asin. 
871, Cas. 536, Epid. 189), comitia (Aul. 700, Pseud. 1232, 
True. 819), praefectura (Cas. 99), prouincia (Cas. 103, 
Capt. 474), de foro . . . m tribu (Capt. 475-6), patriciis 
pueris (Capt. 1002). 

Legrande brings up another point of objection when he 
says : " De fait, les scandales et les, exploits gallants qui 
en sont de frequents episodes, les courtisanes, prostitueurs, 
parasites, artistes en cuisine qui y jouent communement un 
role devaient etre, durant le He siecle avant notre ere, presque 
ignores a Rome ". This argument, however, is very clearly 
not supported by fact. Numerous references from the 
sources attest indubitably that such conditions were in the 
most striking way characteristic of the Rome of the time. 
Compare the passage of Polybius describing the average 
Roman youth wasting himself " on favorite youths, . . . 
on mistresses, on banquets enlivened with poetry and wine, 
and all the extravagant expenditure they entailed." Com- 
pare the statement of Livy " then the cook, whom the an- 
cients considered as the meanest of their slaves, both in esti- 
mation and use, became highly valuable, and what was 
considered as a servile office began to be considered as an' 
art." Compare the complaints of Cato that it was difficult to 

^Sellar, loc. cit.; cf. Duruy, History of Rome (Boston, 1890), vol. ii, 
sec. i, p. 260. 



J 2] INTRODUCTION 1 5 

save a city in which a fish was dearer than an ox, or in 
which a cook brought a higher price than a horse/ Judg- 
ing from their attitude we can hardly agree with Legrande 
that the elements he refers to were " presque ignores a 
Rome " in the second century B. C. 

It is undeniable that there is much in the plays that is 
without question Greek, but this may be taken in part as 
evidence that the Roman public of the time had made con- 
siderable progress in the knowledge of the Greek language 
and had even acquired a certain amount of Hellenic culture. 
Greek titles, Greek words in the text itself, Greek endings 
attached to Latin roots such as ferritrihaces {Most. 356), 
legends of Greek mythology (Bacc. 275, Merc. 469, Men. 
y 4^, Stick. 305) are introduced not with any explanation 
but simply as casual allusions. The fact that they are present 
in great number in poets who were essentially popular, sug- 
gests that the spectators in general must have been capable 
of grasping them. 

This is especially true when we consider the character of 
the Roman audience, and their impatience with spectacles 
which were incomprehensible or foreign to their tastes.^ The 
poets are careful to heed this attitude on the part of their 
hearers. The prologue of the CasinO' (68, et seq.) shows: 
the necessity for explanation of customs which were con- 
trary to the habitual usages of the Romans, and again in 
the Stichus (445-8), when an incident might shock the 
spectators by its apparent improbability, the actor had hisJ 
justification ready and interrupted himself to explain: 
" Don't be surprised at this . . . we're allowed to do this 
at Athens." ' 

* Legrande, Matiere de la comedie nouvelle (Lyons, 1910), p, S7 cf. 
Polyb. XXXIL 11; Liv. XXXIX. 6. 9; Plut. Cat. maj. 8; Cato Carmen 
de moribus 2, ed, Jord. p. 83. 

2 Polyb. XXX. 13 cf. Ter. Hec. Pro. 33, et seq. 

2 Cf. Ter. Phorm. 125-6 where a principle of Attic laiv is explained. 



14 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [14 

In some cases this principle is carried even further, and 
a passage of the original which presents a foreign custom 
is changed by the poet in his adaptation from the Greek. 
An example of this is found in the Phormio of Terence 
(88, et seq.). In the original piece by ApoUodorus, ac- 
cording to Donatus, Antipho's infonnant is the barber who 
has been cutting the girl's hair for her mourning; in the 
Roman version this is entirely altered " ne externis moribus^ 
spectatorem Romaniim oifenderet" — Antipho and his 
friends are sitting in the barber-shop, when " a certain 
youth enters " and tells his story.^ No question of a mourn- 
ing practise familiar and ordinary enough in the Greek of 
course, but offensive perhaps to the Romans, no attempt i6 
instruct the Romans that " this is the custom in Greece ", 
but simply the avoidance of all question by omitting any 
reference to the troublesome practice. 

A similar method of procedure is illustrated in the 
Heauton timorumenos of the same author (61-4). Happily 
this passage can be parallelled with the corresponding pas- 
sage from the original piece of Menander, The lines of 
the Greek run : " By Athena, are you possessed of a demon 
at so many years of age ? For you are sixty or even more, 
and of estates in Halai yours is the fairest, yea by Zeus, 
among the three, and, the luckiest feature, it is unmort- 
gaged " ; in contrast to the lines of Terence : " For faith in 
gods and men, what do you want? What do you seek? 
You are sixty years of age or more, I should estimate. No- 
one in this neighborhood has a better or more valuable farm 
than yours." 

The original is replete with local allusions : the reference 
to the Greek folk-belief that a Sat/Awv caused strange actions; 
to the deme 'AAai At^wv situated about two hours from 

^ Don. ad Ter. Phorm. I. 2. 41. 



jc] INTRODUCTION 1 5 

Athens between Zoster and Kolias ; the description in terms 
of proverbial allusion to the farm as " among the three ", 
«V Tots Tpwriv, an expression which has not been explained ; 
the use of the word ao-riKTov i. e. a farm which was unmort- 
gaged and without opoi or mortgage-stone planted on its 
boundaries. On the other hand the Roman adaptation re- 
tains only the general substance of Menander's words, and 
all the specially Greek details which were without interest 
or meaning tO' the Roman audience, become generalized 
into a pleasant and easily comprehended whole/ 

Furthermore the comic poets sometimes consider it neces- 
sary, in spite of the fact that their audience had a certain 
amount of familiarity with Greek literature and mythology, 
to insert an explanation of mythological allusions which 
were perhaps more difficult. Such an explanation was 
very clearly not a part of the original text. Consider for 
example the passage of the Aulularia (555-6), which reads: 
"If Argus watched them, the one who was all eyesi 
(octdeus), the one of whom Juno' once made use to watch 
Jupiter." - 

Occasionally we find in the comedies a slave swearing by 
Greek divinities or even speaking the Greek tongue (Cas. 
730. cf. Capt. 880, et seq.). Doubtless such slaves are them- 
selves Greek, but it is evident that this does not obviate the 
possibility of their being in Rome and serving a Roman 

1 Cf. Legrande, op. cit., p. 53, et seq., on this point. Legrande also notes 
the passage in Terence, Phorni. 49 : " ubi initiabunt," as opposed to the 
original of Apollodorus, which speaks expressly of the mysteries of 
Samothrace. He further considers that the Roman version of the 
Epidkus, in which, when the captive is recognized as the sister of the 
youth, he is consoled by a flute-player at the house, is probably different 
in the Greek, as Attic laws permitted the marriage of brother and sister. 

* Cf. Plant. Epid. 604, Merc. 690 ; Leo, Plautinische Forschungen 
(Berlin, 1912), p. iii, supports the belief that such explanations were 
self-evidently not included in the original. 



1 6 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [i6 

master. As Leo points out in his Plautinische Forschungen, 
Plautus " nur Sklaven und Personen niederer Schicht 
griechische Brocken in den Mund legt." ^ Exceptions to 
this general rule are found in the Trinummus (187) and 
the Bacchides (1162), where Greek is spoken by old men 
{senes), but in no instance is that language used by other 
characters. 

The plays present many customs and practices which are 
so clearly Greek that at first glance the passages appear 
indubitably to be mere reproductions of the original. Judg- 
ing from the caution exercised by the Roman poets in this 
particular, however, such a conclusion cannot be reached 
without careful consideration. The Romans derived their 
culture so largely from Greek sources that many of the 
most common usages of Roman life had Greek antecedents. 
It must further be remembered that in this period especially, 
the Romans had been brought into even closer contact with 
Greek civilization. With the broadening of Roman intel- 
lectual and material life, many new Greek customs were 
being introduced. Therefore, as is to be expected, such 
customs were appropriately and naturally mentioned in a 
play presented tO' a Roman audience already familiar with 
them in its actual daily life. " Ce sont des moeurs grecques, 
mais deja transplantees en Italic et melees aux habitudes 
des plus nobles families." ^ 

The verisimilitude, the realism, and hence the success 
of a theatrical presentation has its foundation in the repro- 
duction of the habits of every-day life. Oliver recognizes 
this condition when he says " the comedies of Plautus, 
though largely Greek in inspiration, yet naturally must 
reflect the immediate surroundings of their author." ' If 

^ Leo, op. cit., p. 106. 

* Wallon, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 266. 

* Oliver, Romnn Economic Conditions (Toronto, 1907), p. 42. ; 



17] INTRODUCTION 1 7 

metaphorical phrases from banking and business operations 
and the like had been mere translation, they would have 
had no meaning for a Roman audience. 

While the action was always ostensibly in some Greek 
coimtry, it was impossible by even the most conscientious 
efforts really to set the audience in Athens or Ephesus/ 
Plautus recognizes this as inevitable. Adaptations of 
foreign comedies never attempt too painstakingly to main- 
tain the consistency of their allusions, and Plautus indeed 
makes so little attempt to keep up the fiction of Greek sur- 
roundings that he speaks of trestdri at Thebes (Amph. 155) 
and a dictator at Athens {Pseud. 415-6), of the Porta 
Trigemina and the Velabrum (Capt. 90, 489) in Aetolia, 
and makes the characters talk about " living like those 
Greeks " (pergraecari — cf. True. 88, Most. 22, Baec. 743,) 
utterly oblivious to the fact that the persons voicing the 
sentiments are supposed to be Greeks themselves. 

Many eminent modern authorities, support the opinion 
that the plays of Plautus and Terence offer much material 
for a study of Roman conditions. Leo in his Plautinisehe 
Forschungen states that " specifisch Romisches und indi- 
viduell Plautinisches leuchtet fast in jeder Scene aus der 
griechischen Umgebung heraus." - Legrande echoes the 
sentiment in the words : " On congoit que, s'il etait possi- 
ble, sans alterer les grandes lignes du modele, d'aj outer ga 
et la quelque detail romain ou de substituer aux details 
exotiques des equivalents nationaux, Plaute se soit complu 
a le faire." ^ Wallon goes even further and concludes: 

Dans toutes les pieces ou I'aveu meme de F imitation ne nous 
forqait point a reconnaitre, au moins dans le cadre general, une 

1 Classical Weekly, loc. cit., pp. 219-20. 

* Leo, op. cit., p. 167. 

* Legrande, op. cit., p. 50. 



1 8 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [i8 

copie de la Grece, nous I'avons reserve comme specialement 
romain. 'Ce n'est pas qu'il soit toujours le peintre des moeurs 
romaines de son epoque : il y avait encore parmi les citoyens une 
plus forte trace de ces habitudes antiques dont Caton, contem- 
porain de Plaute, laisse entrevoir quelque chose dans son Traite 
d'agriculture ; mais il y avait aussi dans la societe une veritable 
intrusion des moeurs etrangeres. EUes s'etaient etablies au 
sommet de I'fitat; et de la, par I'autorite des plus grandes 
families, par I'influence de leurs relations et la force de 
I'exemple, elles menagaient de se repandre partout. C'est la 
ce que Plaute attaque sous cette forme toute descriptive, avec 
non moins de vigeur, mais avec plus d'habilete que le poete 
Naevius. S'il parle, comme on I'a dit, a la populace qui 
remplit le fond du theatre, il lui parle bien un peu des sena- 
teurs et des chevaliers qui occupent les premiers rangs: et 
ainsi, tout en retracant des scenes greques, il est dans la verite 
de son temps et de son pays.^ 

In addition to the reasons which have been given, careful 
study of sources unquestionably Roman in their material 
verifies the belief as to the value of the comedies as a field 
of information. It will be observed that in nearly every 
instance the material drawn from the comedies is parallelled 
and substantiated by references to Cato, Polybius, Livy, and 
similar sources. It may be assumed, therefore, that the 
majority of the habits and allusions contained in the come- 
dies are either conclusively Roman, Roman with Greek ante- 
cedents, or Greek customs already introducted into Rome 
and familiar to the Romans. 

At first glance much of the material which has been as- 
sembled, may seem to present little that is new. The 
furnishings of the dwelling, the customs of the household, 
many of the business and social practises are so similar to 
those which have been treated again and again in the 

* Wallon, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 261, et seq. 



ig-j INTRODUCTION 19 

manuals and treatises of Roman life, that the present work 
appears in many cases almost a repetition. This very simi- 
larity, however, constitutes one of the most significant re- 
sults of the study because the material has been gathered 
independently from sources dealing with Republican condi- 
tions. It is, therefore, of importance in showing tO' what 
a large extent conditions of the Imperial period had already 
developed and crystallized as early as the first half of the 
second century B. C. 

Attempt has been made throughout the work toi keep the 
different parts as evenly balanced as possible. The descrip- 
tion of the country estate may appear somewhat brief, but 
as practically all the material was necessarily drawn from 
Cato's De re rustica, a treatment involving a wealth of 
minute details would be little more than a rescript of the 
treatise. It seemed preferable, therefore, to limit the dis- 
cussion of the topic tO' more general statements, giving in 
the footnotes references from which further and more de- 
tailed information might be gained. 

Frequently, in the footnotes to the sources, all of the re- 
ferences which have been found on a given point are not 
mentioned. In every case, however, enough references are 
cited to be significant, and it is hoped, conclusive. In view 
of the purpose of the work anything further appeared un- 
necessary. 

Modern works have been read extensively in the prepara- 
tion of the following study. The results obtained, however, 
were largely negative, owing, as has been said, to the lack 
of attention which has been paid to this particular period. 
For that reason, only those books have been cited in the 
bibliography which are specifically quoted or from which 
definite material has been drawn. 



CHAPTER I 
Dwelling, Town and Country 

(a) TOWN-HOUSE and FURNITURE 

It is difficult to give a description of the Roman dwelling 
of this period which would be generally applicable. Not 
only did the house vary according to the means of the 
owner, but also in this period of transition, older and sim- 
pler forms existed side by side with more recent changes 
and innovations/ 

^The treatment of the house in this chapter is based on the literary- 
sources, with the hope that the result may be of use in the study of 
archeological remains. Archeological evidence for the second century 
B. C is available at Pompeii (on the private houses at Pompeii cf. 
Mau-Kelsey, Pompeii (New York, London, 1899), p. 239, et seq., Over- 
beck, Pompeji [Leipsic, 1856], p. 179, et seq.) Some of the earlier houses 
there have no peristyle, but the normal plan includes both atrium and 
peristyle, and shows the complete union of Greek and Italic types. 
The House of the Surgeon, which antedates 200 B. C, is wholly Italic, 
with a roofed court, atrium, surrounded by smaller rooms and a 
garden in the rear, and the House of Sallust, built in the second cen- 
tury B. C., resembled this in its original plan. The House of the 
Faun illustrates the type of dwelling " that wealthy men of cultivated 
tastes living in the third or second century B. C. built and adorned 
for themselves" (Mau-Kelsey, op. cit., p. 282). The plan is more 
complex, and the apartments are in four groups: (i) a large Tuscan 
atrium with living rooms on three sides; (2) a small tetrastyle atrium 
with rooms for domestic service around it; (3) a peristyle; (4) a 
second peristyle. The later House of Pansa also shows the union — 
here there is an atrium of usual type with alae and tablinum, entered 
through a vestibule, and at the further end there is access to the 
peristyle and the surrounding rooms. 

It is natural to find such a union in a city like Pompeii which was 
20 [20 



21 ] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 2 1 

Rough stones held together with mortar were used for 
the foundation; unburnt bricks for the upper part, and 
wood for the inner framework. The house was plastered 
with a mixture of lime and chaff, and a compound of gravel 
and lime was used for the flooring (pauimentum) .^ The 
roof was covered with tiles, of which there were different 
kinds: (i) tegtdae, flat tiles, (2) imbrices, hollow tiles 
which were placed over the joints of the flat tiles, (3) tegu- 
lar conliciares, large tiles. ^ 

There were two systems of roof construction — the closed 
roof and the roof with the opening. When the roof was 
closed, the form was called testudo, the four slopes from 
the sides of the house coming together like a pyramid. The 
form with the opening in the center over the atrium, how- 
ever, was the one generally used. The flat roof served as a 
terrace, solarium.^ 

Before the house proper was a fore-space or uestihulum. 
This was used as a waiting room for those who wished to 

subject at the same time to Greek and Roman influence. It cannot 
be accepted as positive, however, that all of the features which are 
found in the second-century remains at Pompeii, were also current in 
Rome itself at that time. According to Overbeck, op. cit., p. 187, 
" die dritte Periode der romischen hauslichen Architektur konnen wir 
vom letzten Jahrhundert der Repubhk an datiren . . . dieser Periode 
gehort die Erweiterung des romischen Hauses durch vom griechischen 
Hause entlehnte Raumlichkeiten mit griechischen Namen ". 

^ For materials used in construction cf. Cato R. R. XIV, et seq.; 
pauimentum: XVIII. 7; CXXVIII: " Imhitationem delutare. terram 
quam maxime cretosam iiel rubricosam, eo amurcam infundito, paleas 
indito." 

^Ibid., XIV. 4; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 504: " imbricis et tegtilas"; Rud. 
87; Ter. Eun. 588; Caec. iStat. Synaristosae, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 68: 
" ex tegiilis " ; Liv. XXXVI. 37. 2. 

^ Plaut. Mil. Glor. 159, 175, 287: " impluuium" ; Ter. Eun. 589: 
" pluiiiam". Cic. Brut. 22. 87: "in quadam testudine" (referring to a 
structure belonging to iServius Sulpicius Galba, praetor 151 B. C, consul 
144 B. C.). Plaut. Mil. Glor. 340, 378: "solarium." 



22 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [22 

see the master of the house, and was adorned with paintings., 
standards and spoils taken in battle, and the like. In front 
of the uestihulum there might be a walk, ambulacrum.^ 

There is a question whether the street door, ianua 
maxima,^ opened directly into the atrium or into a hall, 
ostium. The words of Livy, " Vulgo apertis ianuis in pro- 
patulis epulati sunt," and the provision of the sumptuary 
law which ordered that during dinner the doors should be 
left open so that all might see that the legal restrictions 
were observed, suggest that the door opened directly, and 
this view is upheld by Marquardt.' It is possible, however, 
that a short hall led from the atrium to the ianua: ( i ) while 
ostium is frequently used synonymously with ianu^ and 
fores to mean simply the entrance to the house, Plautus by 
the expression ante ostium et ianuam suggests that ostium 
strictly indicated a small space behind the ianua; * (2) there 
was necessarily a place for the ianitor, and frequently for a 
watch-dog as well, immediately in back of the door, and it 
is unlikely that these would be in the atrium. ° The possi- 
bility that the passage was very short might explain the 
passage from Livy. 

^ Plaut. Most 817: " uiden uestibuliim ante aedis hoc et ambulacruiii " ; 
Aul. Gell. XVI. 5. 3 : " locum ante ianuam domtis uaciium " ; Liv. 
XXXVIII. 43. 11: "Amhraciam captain signaque, quae ablata crimin- 
abantur, et cetera spolia eius urbis ante currum laturus et iixurus in 
postibus suis ". 

* Cato R. R. XIV. 2 : " ianuam maximam." 

'Liv. XXV. 12. 15: Macrob. '^c^. III. 17. i: " ut patentibus ianuis 
pransitaretur et cenitaretur, sic oculis ciuium testibus factis luxuriae 
modus iieret. prima autem omnium de cenis lex ad populum Orchia 
peruenit." Marquardt, Vie privee des Romains (Paris, 1892-3), vol. 
i, p. 267. 

* Plaut. Pseud. 604, Stich. 449-50, Cist. 669 r/. Pers. 758; Overbeck, 
op. cit., p. 189. 

^ Plaut. Asin. 390: "ianitorem"; Cas. 462: " atriensem . . . sub 
ianua " ; Most. 854 : " canem istanc a foribus abducant face ". 



23] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 23 

The central point of the house was the atrium, which was 
hghted from above, through the opening in the roof. Be- 
neath this opening there was a corresponding opening in the 
floor. The term impluuiwn was applied to either opening. 
In Terence the opening in the roof is also designated by the 
term pluuia.^ In the atrium in the simpler form of dwel- 
ling was the Lar Familiaris and the focusr- In the more 
elaborate houses the atrium had already begun to be used 
instead of the uestihuhmi as a place of waiting for those 
who had business with the master of the house.'' 

In the arrangement of the house various changes were 
taking place with the idea of increasing the number of 
rooms and of distributing them better. Around the atrium 
were chambers for different purposes, such as sleeping- 
rooms and private rooms for members of the family and 
store-rooms for wine and provisions. The conclauia or 
family rooms were closed with keys and bolts; the store- 
rooms with seals.'' The house was further increased by 
additions in the rear, posticae aedes, and the cooking hearth 
was removed from the atriiun to a special room called 
culina. There was also a latrina, probably near the kitchen 

. ^ Plaut. Amph. 1108, Mil. Glor. 159, 175, 287: impluuium used to refer 
to opening in roof; Liv. XLIII. 13. 6: used to refer to opening in 
floor ; Ter. Eun. 580 : " pluuiam." 

''Cato R. R. iCXLIdl. 2; Plaut. Aid. 386. 

'Plaut. Anl. 517-9: " cedunt, petunt \ tre£eni, gtiom slant thylacistae 
in atriis | textores limbularii, arcularii." 

* Cato Orat. reliq. LVII., ed. Jord. p. 64: "in cubiculum subrectitauit 
e conuiuio " ; Plaut. Most. 843 : " conclauia " ; Cas. 881 : " in conclaue " ; 
Ter. Heauf. 902, Eun. 583; Plut. Cat. maj. 24. iCato R. R. XIV. 2: 
" cellas familiae, carnaria " ; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 857 : " cella uinaria " ; 
Capt. 914: "cum rami carnarium"; Cure. 324; Cato Mem. Diet. 72, ed. 
Jord. p. no: " cellam penariant". Plaut. Cas. 144: "obsignate cellas, 
referte anuluni ad me"; Capt. 918. Ter. Eun. 603: " pessulum ostio 
obdo " ; Don. ad Ter. Eun. III. 5. 35. 



24 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [24 

SO that a common drain might serve for both/ In some 
cases there was an entirely separate structure in the rear 
used by the master as a study when he wished to be undis- 
turbed.^ The posticae aedes also included the garden.^ 

The space under the roof was also divided into different 
rooms, which were reached by ladders. These rooms were 
lighted by luminaria and opened to the atrium. They were 
used for storing wine, oil, and especially wood.* 

By the time of Cicero the two-part Greek house had been 
introduced. This innovation changed the rear of the house 
into the gynaeceum or family dwelling, which was provided 
with an atrium and contained sleeping-rooms, the balneum, 
the apodyterium or dressing-room, and the palaestra or 
room for athletic exercises. A colonnade (peristylum) was 
also added. Passages in Plautus and Terence refer to vari- 
ous features of such a dwelling, but as these passages may 
be taken substantially from the Greek originals, they do not 
indicate positively that the form was already current in 
Rome.^ 

*Liv. XXIII. 8. 8: " hortus erat posticis aediuin partibus"; Plaut. 
Stick. 450: " posticam partem magis utuntur aedium" ; Most. 931. 
Ihid., 1-2. " exi e culina . . . inter patinas " ; Cas. 764. Plaut. Cure. 580 : 
" ancillam quae latrinam lauat." 

* Cic. Brut. 22. 87 : " omnibus exclusis, commentatum in quadam tes- 
tudine cum seruis literatis fuisse . . . exisse in aedis " cf. Plaut. Trin. 
194: " posticulum hoc recepit quom aedis uendidit." 

'Liv. XXIII. 8. 8; Plaut. Stick. 450-3, 614, Epid. 660, Cas. 613; Ter. 
Ad. 908-9. 

^Cato R. R. LXIV. i, LV, XIV. 2; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 824: " domisit 
nardini amphoram cellarius." 

^Cic. ad Att. II. in. 4: "balineum caliieri"; ad Fam. XIV. 20; ad 
Qu. fr. III. i. I. 2: "apodyterium" ; in V err. V. 72. 185: "in priuata 
aliqua palaestra". Plaut. Most 755-6: "gynaeceum aediiicare uolt in 
suis j et balineas et ambulacrum et porticum"; Ter. Phorm. 862: 
"gynaeceum". Rider, Greek House (Cambridge, 1916), p. 264, con- 
cludes that the two-court type of house seems to have been adopted by 
the Greeks and the Romans about the same time, vis : 2nd Cent. B. C. 



25] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 25 

In some cases the dwelling was enlarged by the addition 
of a second story. This upper floor was reached by stairs 
from the street but might also be reached from the interior. 
The second story led to the transference of the dining-room 
from the atrium tO' a room (cenaculum) in the upper story, 
with the result that the whole upper story was called cenacu- 
lum.^ As early as 218 B. C. there is reference to a building 
three stories in height,^ and dwellings continued to increase 
in size and become more elaborate until in the following 
century M. Aemilius Lepidus Porcina, for example, had in 
Rome a rent of 6000 HS (c. $300) and in the territory of 
Alsium a villa several stories high.^ The fact that he was 
fined for this by the censors suggests that private houses 
had attained such a height that they had to be restrained by 
law. The restrictions were probably imposed in an attempt 
to check the growing luxury of the time and not with the 
idea of diminishing the danger from fire. 

The door was usually of wood, with two posts, a sill 
(limen or limen inferum) , and a lintel (Iknen superum). The 
door itself was double with two wings (fores) which turned 
on pivots {cardines). Each of the wings was fixed by bolts, 
fastened probably one in the sill and the other in the lintel. 
The door was also provided with a lock for which there 
were different kinds of keys.* During the day the door was 

^ Plaut. Amph. 863: "in siiperiore . .cenaculo" ; Liv. XXXIX. 14, 2: 
" cenaciilimi super aedes datum est scalis ferentibus in publicum ob- 
seratis, aditu in aedes uerso." 

^ Liv. XXI. 62. 3 : The fanciful story given here of the ox which 
jumped from the third story of the forum boarium may have been 
made up at a later date and pushed back into the past. It cannot be 
taken as positive proof that buildings of that height existed at the time. \j 

'Veil. Pat. II. 10: "quod sex milibus aedes conduxisset". Val. 
Max. VIII. I, 13. damn. 7: " accusatum £rimine nimis sublime extructae 
uillae in alsiensi agro graui multa aifecit." 

*Plin. H. N. XXXIV. 3 (7). 13: " Camillo inter crimina obiecit 



26 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [26 

rarely closed with the bolts. A porter, quite often with a 
dog, was stationed at the entrance, and people wishing to 
enter, knocked to announce themselves.^ 

The house was largely dependent upon the opening in the 
roof for light, but there were also windows of various sizes. 
The larger windows of the house were fenestrae clatratae — 
covered with grills. The smaller openings were called 
luminaria.^ For artificial lighting there were wax candles 
(cerei), oil lamps with linen wicks (lucernae) , and lanterns 
(lanternae). Glass was not used in the lanterns, but some 
semi-transparent material, such as horn.^ 

There was no adequate water supply. The rain water 
which was received through the opening in the roof was 
collected in an underground cistern (puteiis),'^ and when 
this was insufficient for the needs of the household, water 
had to be carried from the public tanks. Sometimes these 
public tanks were tapped by the individual house-owner, 

Spurius Caruilius quaestor, ostia quod aerata haberet in dome ". Plaut. 
Most. 818-9: "age specta postis, quoiusmodi, | quanta Urmitate facti 
et quanta crassitudine " ; Liv. XXXVIII. 43. 11. Plaut. Most. 829: "in 
forihus"; Pers. 570-1; Ter. Heaut. 278. Plaut. Cure. 158: " sonitum 
prohibe forium et crepitum cardinum"; Aul. 103-4: " occlude sis | fores 
ambobus pessulis " ; Cist. 649 : " occludite aedis pessulis, repagiilis " ; 
Cure. 153; Ter. Heaut. 278, Eun. 603; cf. Plaut. Pers. 572: " ferream 
seram atque anellum." Most. 404 : " clauem Laconicam " ; ibid., 425 : 
" clauim cedo atque abi [hinc]intro atque occlude ostium." 

^ Plaut. Stick. 308: "quid hoc? occlusam ianuam uideo. ibo et pultabo 
fores"; Most. 444-5: "quid hoc? occlusa ianua est interdius. pultabo"; 
Asin. 382. Asin. 390: "ianitorem"; Cas. 462, Cure. 76, Most. 854: 
" canem istanc a foribus abducant face." 

* Plaut. Mil. Glor. 379: " fenstra clatrata" ; Cato R. R. XIV. 2: 
" fenestras, clatros in fenestras maioris bipedales luminaria." 

* Plaut. Cure. 9 : " rereum ". Caec. Stat. Meretrix 11 ( i ) , Ribb. Frag. 
Com. p. 54 : " candelabrum ligneum ardentem ". Plaut. Bacc. 446 : 
" lucerna uncto expretus linteo"; Most. 487; Cato R. R. XII'I. i. Plaut. 
Amph. 341: "qui Volcanum in cornu conclusum geris": Aul. 566. 

* Plaut. Most. 380, 769, Mil. Glor. 551-2. 



27] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 27 

notwithstanding the fact that to draw ofif the water-supply 
in this way constituted a violation of the law/ 

The interior decorations, the furniture, and the house- 
hold utensils of this period are especially significant of the 
changing conditions of life and the growing tendency to 
luxury. Houses were beautified with citrus wood and ivory ; 
the use of Numidian marble for floorings was known; 
statues of the gods were introduced merely as objects of art, 
until the conservative Cato, who maintained with pride 
*^' uillas suas inexcultas et ritdes ne tectorio quidem praelitas 
fuisse," stood aghast.^ 

^ Liv. XXXIX. 44. 4. 

^ Cato Orat. reliq. XXXVI. i, ed. Jord. p. 55 : " dicere possum, quihiis 
uillae atque aedes aediUcatae atque expolitae maximo opere citro atque 
chore atque pauimentis Poenicis sient " ; ibid., LXXI, p. 69 : " miror 
audere atque religionem non tenere, statuas deorum, exempla earuni 
facierum, signa domi pro supellectile statuere " ; Incert. Orat. reliq. X, 
ed. Jord. p. 72-3 : " M. Cato . . . publicis iam priuatisque opnlentis rebus 
uillas suas inexcultas et rudes ne tectorio quidem praelitas fuisse dicit 
. .. Neque, inquit, mihi aediUcatio neque uasum neque uestimentum ullum 
est manupretiosum, neque pretiosus seruus, neque ancilla." 

The use of marble at Rome in the second century B. C is questioned. 
However the quotation from Cato {cf. Festus s. v. pauimenta Poenica, 
ed. Lindsay, p. 282: "pauimenta Poenica marmore Numidico constrata 
signiUcat Cato") and the statement of Velleius Paterculus I. 11. 5: 
" Hie idem [Metellus^ , primus omnium, Romae aedeni ex marmore," 
appear to establish its introduction in this period. Moreover Livy tells 
us (XLII. 3, I, et seq.) that in 173 B. C, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, when he 
was building a temple to Fortuna at Rome, imported marble tiles 
(tegulae marmoreae) to enhance the magnificence of the structure. As 
these tiles had been taken from a temple of Juno in Bruttium, the act 
was considered a sacrilege and the iSenate ordered the marble to be 
returned. The intention of Flaccus suggests that the employment of 
marble was already known at Rome. 

On the other hand Pliny {H. N. XXXVI. 2,{2,)-7) states that L. 
Crassus c. 100 B. C. was the first to have pillars of foreign marble. 
He also states {H. N. XXXVI. 6 (7-8). 48-50) that Mamurra, a prefect 
of engineers of Caesar in Gaul, was the first to cover the whole of the 
walls of his house with marble, and that M. Lepidus, consul in 78 
B. C. was the first to have the lintels of his house made of Numidian 



28 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [28 

The principal articles of furniture were couches and 

marble. " This ", says Pliny, " is the earliest instance I find of the 
introduction of Nuraidian marble ". The statement of Pliny, however, 
need hardly be considered as nullifying the words of Cato, who was 
in a better position to know. 

Platner, Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome (Boston, 
1911), p. 25, doubtless with these statements of Pliny in mind, entirely 
ignores the earlier references to the employment of marble, and declares 
that " the use of marble, both native and foreign, began in Rome in 
the first decade of the first century B. C." PuUen in his Handbook of 
Ancient Roman Marbles (London, 1894), does not discuss the question. 
Corsi, Delia Pietre Antiche (Rome, 1845), p. 12, et seq., in dealing with 
the earliest importations of marble to Rome, says that its use was not 
unknown before the first century B. C, although " anche dopo la dis- 
truzione di Cartagine che segui nell' anno 608 fu costume de' piu nobili 
personaggi romani il valersi delle sole pietre del Lazio " (on this point 
compare the fragment of Cato with the similar attitude expressed by 
Seneca, Ep. LXXXVI). Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom, (Berlin, 
1871-1907), vol. i, sec. i, p. 16, et seq., is also less sweeping than Platner. 
Although he considers that the general use of marble is of later date, 
he interprets the passage of Velleius to indicate " ein zum Staunen 
Roms mit solchen geraubten Marmorstiicken ausgezierter Tempel ". 
Until the time of Augustus, according to Jordan, marble for building 
purposes was "ein fremdes, aus dem hellenischen Osten und Afrika 
bezogenes Material, in Rom schwerlich bekannt vor den punischen 
Kriegen ". In the same connection he remarks : "Die bekannten Notizen 
uber die Verwendung des fremden Marmors . . . vor Augustus treten, 
was gewohnlich iibersehen wird, lediglich in Verbindung mit der 
Geschichte des Luxus, namentlich der Privathauser, auf ... So auch 
Catos Klage uber die pauimenta Poenica ". He thus accepts the refer- 
ence of Cato to the use of marble in extremely luxurious private dwell- 
ings of the second century B. C 

It is evident of course that marble was used sparingly in this 
early period. There is no reason for questioning the statement of 
Pliny as to the introduction of marble columns. But at the same 
time there is good reason to believe that with the marked increase in 
luxury in all phases of life in the early part of the second century 
B. C, there was also the beginning of the use of marble, which reached 
a further development in the following century. IMarquardt, op. cit., 
vol. ii, pp. 266-7, takes much this point of view when he says : " Encore 
que Rome ait oppose a I'invasion de ces somptuosites une longue et 
vigoureuse resistance, le vieux Caton deja parle de carrelages en 
mosa'ique de marbre numide". 



29] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 29 

chairs, tables, and chests of various sizes. There were also 
mirrors, disc-shaped, and made of polished metal/ The 
couches (lecti) which served as beds or sofas, varied ac- 
cording to the purpose for which they were intended and 
according to the means and taste of the owner. The frame- 
work was of wood, and in some, leather thongs were 
stretched across the frame, on which the mattress, cushions, 
and coverings were laid. In 187 B. C. couches with bronze 
feet (lecti aerati) were introduced, and Plautus speaks of 
lecti ehurati and lecti aurati. The couches used for persons 
reclining at meals were referred to as triclinia and accom- 
modated three persons.^ 

For seating purposes there were also various kinds of 
chairs: (i) the sella, (2) the solium, a high chair with a 
back, (3) the suhsellium, a low bench. These chairs were 
not upholstered but were provided with cushions (puluini).^ 
Chests were of different sizes ranging from the large 
armarium to the small cistella or casket, and were used not 
only to hold garments but also different articles of house- 
hold use. Chests whose contents were especially valuable 

1 Plaut. Epid. 382-3 ; Ter. Ad. 415 ; Plaut. Most. 268 : " ut speculum 
tenuisti, metuo ne olant argentum manus". 

^ Ter. Ad. 585: " lectulos in sole ilignis pedibus"; Cato R. R. X. 5: 
" lecios loris subtentos" ; Ter. Heatit. 125: " lectos sternere" cf. Plaut. 
Stick. 357. Liv. XXXIX. 6. 7 (referring to the triumph of Cn. Manlius 
in 187 B. C) : " luxuriae peregrinae origo ab exercitu Asiatico inuecta 
in urbe est: ii primum lectos aerates, iiestem stragulam pretiosam, 
plagulas et alia textilia, et quae turn viagniUcae supellectilis habebantur, 
monopodia et abacas Rontam aduexerunt"; cf. Plaut. Stick. 2,17'- " lectos 
eburatos, auratos" ; Plin. H. N. XXXIV. 3 (8). 14: "nam triclinia aerata 
abacosque et monopodia Cn. Manlium ... primum inuexisse". The 
term triclinium was also applied to the room used as a dining-room, 
cf. Naevius Tarentilla IV (10), Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 20: " utrubi cena- 
turi estis, kicine an in triclinio ? " 

^Sellae: Cato R. R. X. 5, Plaut. Cure. 311, Bacc. 432; solia: Cato 
loc. cit.; suhsellium : Plaut. Stick. 93, 703; puluinus: ibid. 94; Cato 
R. R. X. 5. 



30 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [30 

were locked or sealed.^ Tables (mensae) were used at 
meals principally to hold the various dishes. In 187 B. C. 
abaci, tables of precious metal for the display of plate, and 
monopodia, stands or tables with one foot, were introduced.^ 
The floors and walls of the house were kept clean with 
brushes of twigs or reeds, and there was a special vessel 
{nassiterna) with which water was sprinkled in sweeping." 
Tables were wiped with a sponge {peniculus) ^ 

Under the general term uasa was grouped an extensive 
range of household utensils: (i) the large jars for storing 
wine, oil, and provisions : amphora, cadus, dolium, seria, 
the last two being frequently mentioned together; ^ (2) the 
smaller vessels in which liquids were carried : urna, sitella, 

^Titinius Ex Incertis Fabulis, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 158: ''quid habes 
nisi unam arcam sine claui?" Plaut. Epid. 308-9: "ex occluso atque 
obsignato armario \ decutio argenti tantum " ; True. 55 : " armariola 
Graeca" ; Amph. 773-4: "in hoc cistellula \ tuo signo obsignata"; Rud. 
11C9: " cistellam." 
~ Plaut. Men. 210-2 : 

" glandionidam suillam, laridum pernonidam, 
aut sincipitamenta porcina aut aliquid ad eunt niodum, 
inadida quae mi adposita in mensam miluinam suggerant." 
cf. Pers. 354: " mensa inanis nunc si apponatur mihi"; ibid. 769: "date 
aquam manibus, apponite mensam." Liv. loc. cit., Plin. loc. cit. 
' Plaut. Stick. 347, et seq. : 

" munditias uolo fieri, ecferte hue scopas siniulque harundinem, 

lit operam omnem araneorum perdam et texturam inprobem 

deiciamque eorum omnis telas." 

ibid. 352-4: " nassiternam cum aqua . . . eonsperge" ; Titinius Setina 

XVII (12), Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 151: " iierrite mi aedis, spargite"; 

Cato Otat. reliq. L, ed, Jord. p. 62 : " nassiternas ". 

* Plaut. Men. 77-8: " nonien fecit Penieulo mihi | idea quia mensam 
quando edo detergeo " ; Ter, Eun. 777. 

* Plaut. Poen. 863: "uasa salua"; Aid. 95-6. Amphora: Plaut. Mil. 
Glor. 824, Cas. 121-2; Cato R. R. CXIII. 2. Cadus: Plaut. Mil. Glor. 850, 
Amph. 429. Dolium : Cato R. R.'K. 4: " dolia quo uinacios condat, amur- 
caria, uinaria, frumentaria" . Seria: Plaut. Capt. 917; Ter. Heaut. 460: 
" dolia omnia, omnis serias " ; Liv. XXIV. 10. 8 : " serias doliaque." 



3 1 ] DWELLING, TO WN AND COUNTRY 31 

■urceus. Cato distinguishes between urcei Hctiles and urcei 
urnales, the latter being apparently larger and not of earthen- 
ware/ (3) The vessels used in drinking: crater (mixing- 
bowl), cyathus (a measure or ladle), trulla (a small ladle or 
scoop) made of wood or bronze, different kinds of drinking 
cups as the patera, scaphiuni, gaulus, calex (made of earthen- 
ware), batioca, scyphus, cantharits, sinus. - (4) The eating- 
ware: lanx (a round platter for roast meats), pathme 
(platters used for serving meats, et cetera, and which could 
be covered), catinus (an earthenware bowl), labellum (a 
small basin). ^ (5) The kitchen-ware : aw/ac (jars used for 
cooking, sometimes of bronze, sometimes of earthenware). 
hirnea (used both as a kind of drinking vessel and for bak- 
ing cakes), trua (a stirring-spoon or skimmer), patinae (em- 
ployed as a general term to refer to cooking utensils).* The 

^ Urna: Plaut. Cas. 76: "in iirnam tnulsi." Sitella: Plaut. Cas. 342; 
Liv. XXV. 3- 16. Urceus: Cato R. R. XIII. 3. 

'Crater: Ennius Ann. Lib. Inc. CXLV. 624, ed. Vahl. p. 116: " crateris 
ex auratis hauserunt". Cyathus: Plaut. Rud. 1319, Stick. 706. Trulla: 
Cato R. R. Xril. 2 : " trullas aheneas " ; ibid., XIII. 3 : " trullas ligneas ". 
Patera: Plaut. Amph. 766: " aurea patera". Scaphiuni: Stick. 693. 
Gaulus: Rud. 1319. Calex: Capt. 916: "aulas calicesque omnes con- 
f regit ". Batioca : Stick. 694. Scypkus : Asin. 444. Cantharus : Most. 347, 
Stick. 693. Sinus: Rud. 1319. 

' Lanx : Plaut. Cure. 323-4 : 

" pernam, abdomen, siimen siiis, glandium - ain tii omnia liaec? 

in carnario fortasse diets, imnw in lancibus." 

Patinae: Pseud. 840-1: " ubi omnes patinae feruont, omnis aperio | is 

odos...in caelum uolat"; Mil. Glor. 759: " tolle kanc patinam; remoue 

pernam." Catinus: Cato R. R. hXXXIY. Labellum : i&td.,LXXXVIII. 2. 

^Aulae: ibid., LXXXI : aulam aheneam; Plaut. Capt. 846-7: " astitui 
aulas, patinas eltii | . . . epulas foueri foculis feruentibus." Hirnea : 
Amph. 429, 431-2; Cato R. R. LXXXI: " irneam fictilem." Trua: 
Titinius Setina XV (i), Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 151. Patinae: Plaut. 
Most. 1-2: 

" Exi e culina sis foras, mastigia, 
qui mi inter patinas exhibes argutias." 



32 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [32 

household equipment also included such objects of domestic 
use as knives, hatchets and cleavers, baskets, the mortar and 
pestle to grind the flour for baking, and the like/ The ap- 
parent emphasis placed upon drinking vessels is largely due 
to the character of the sources for the period, but it may be 
assumed that the entire household equipment was quite 
complete. 

The pottery which was in most general use at Rome was 
Samian ware. Vases were also made at Mutina. The term 
" Samian " came to be applied to any kind of earthenware, 
although Samian ware itself was thin and broke easily.^ In 
this period earthenware at Rome had been superseded to a 
large extent by silver. Cato complained that already the 
people scoffed at the earthen molds which served as orna- 
ments to the temples, and its use for domestic purposes was 
regarded as an evidence of poverty or covetousness. In the 
Captivi of Plautus, for example, it is advanced against a 
man as the most clinching proof of his avarice : " He's the 
stingiest person ever — why, just to give you some idea, 
when he's sacrificing to his own Genius, for whatever 
vessels are needed in the ritual, he uses Samian ware for 
fear the Genius himself will steal them — ^you can guess from 
that how far he trusts anyone else ! " Q. Aelius Tubero 
Catus, the son-in-law of Aemilius Paulus, in fact, seemed 

iPlaut. Aul. 95-6: 

" cultrum, securim, pistillum, mortarium, 
quae utenda uasa semper uicini rogant." 
Stick. 289: " sportulamque et hamulum piscarium." 

^ Liv. XLI. 18. 4 : " iMsa omnis generis, usui magis quani ornamento." 
Plaut. Bacc. 202: " scis tu tit confringi uas cito Samium solet"; Men. 
178: " placid e pulta. metuis, credo, ne fores Samiae stent"; cf. Walters, 
History of Ancient Pottery (New York, 1905), vol. ii, p. 474, et seq. 
The find of lamps described by Walters, op. cit., chap, xx, gives evidence 
of a pottery on the Esquiline in the third and second centuries B. C, 
and this is supported by Festus, i'. v. salimim, ed. Lindsay, p. 468. 



33] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY ^^ 

almost " fabidosiis" , because even in his consulship he ate 
from earthenware and refused all silverware except two 
vases which he had received after the battle of Pydna in 
recognition of his bravery/ 

The increase in the amount of silverware owned by pri- 
vate individuals was very marked and rapid. This fact is 
best illustrated by concrete instances of the years immediately 
preceding and subsequent to the period under discussion. 
In the preceding century P. Cornelius Ruf inus had been re- 
moved from the Senate because he had at his home ten 
pounds of silverware,^ and the Carthaginian envoys to Rome 
had remarked that at the banquets they attended in various 
homes the same set of silver always appeared,^ a fact which 
would seem to indicate that the Romans of the time regarded 
the use of such elaborate ware more as a fitting concomitant 
of the official dignity of the State than as an opportunity for 
individual display. In contrast to this attitude Scipio 
Aemilianus was the owner of thirty-two pounds of silver, 
and Q. Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus was the first of the 
Romans to have one thousand pounds.* With the increase 
in quantity a high value was placed upon artistic workman- 
ship: C. Gracchus paid as high as 5000 HS a pound for 
some of his silverware, and Crassus the orator purchased 
two cups (scyphos) engraved in relief by Mentor, which 
were so valuable that he dared not use them.^ Golden vases 

^ Liv. XXXIV. 4. 4: " ante fix a fictilia deorum Romanorum ridentis." 
Plaut. Stick. 6gf2, et seq. : for use of Samiaii ware as an evidence of 
poverty; Capt. 290-3; PHn. H. N. XXXIII. 11 (50). 142. cf. Plut. Aem. 
Paul. 28. Walters, op. cit., vol. n, p. 431, points out that in spite of 
increased habits of luxury, it is obvious that the replacing of earthen- 
ware by metal could never have become universal. 

* Aul. Gell. XVII. 21. 39. 

' Plin. H. N. XXXIII. 11 (50). 143. 

*Ibid. XXXIII. II (so). 141. 

»/&»U XXXIII. II (53). 147. 



34 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [34 

were introduced in quantity by Aemilius Paulus, who 
brought them from Macedon to be carried in his triumph/ 
The dwelling was rendered still more luxurious in its fur- 
nishings by the introduction of rich tapestries, rugs, and 
coverings from the Orient. Plautus gives a vivid description 
of articles brought back from Asia, and his list is strikingly 
similar in its details to the account given by Livy of the 
introduction of Asiatic luxury at the triumph of Cn. Man- 
lius in 187 B. C.^ The impression made upon the unac- 
customed Roman by these highly colored stuffs is amusingly 
illustrated b}^ the threat of a master to his slave in one of 
the comedies : '* Upon your back I will mark with my 
lashes a pattern so variegated that no Campanian tapestry 
or Alexandrian hanging can show sO' many different 
colors." ^ 

(b) COUNTRY ESTATE 

On the country estate the buildings included the dwelling- 
house, the stables, the storehouses, and the poultry-yard. 
The size of the estate was uniformly limited. CatO' assumes 
240 iugera as a standard and 100 mgera where the vine 

^ Plut. Aem. Pnul. 33. 

References to both gold and silverware are found in Plautus : Tmr. 
53-4: " uasum argenteum aut uasum ahenum"; Pseud. 162: " argentum 
eluito, idem exstruito" ', Amph. 760: " auream pateram" cf. Ennius 
Ann. Lib. Inc. CXLV. 624, ed. Vahl. p. 116. " crateris ex aurafis 
hauserunt ". 

*Plaut. Stick. 376-381: 

" Pi. lanam purpuramque multam. Ge. est qui uentrem uestiam. 
Pi. lectos eburatoSf auratos. Ge. accubabo regie. 
Pi. turn Babylonica et peristroma tonsilia et tappetia 
aduexit, nimium bonae rei. Ge. hercle rem gestam bene\ 
Pi. pose, ut occepi narrare, Hdicinas, tibicinas, 
sambucas aduexit secum forma eximia." 
cf. Liv. XXXIX. 6. 7. 

* Plaut. Pseud. 145-7. 



35] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 35 

was cultivated/ The owner did not always cultivate the 
land himself but might lease it for a fixed period, in which 
case the person leasing the estate and the owner divided 
the gross products according to proportions agreed upon. 
The proprietor under such an arrangement supplied the 
fodder for the work-animals.^ 

Among the products of the estate the cultivation of the 
vine and the olive tree was of utmost importance. The 
owner might gather them himself or lease the harvest to 
another. Frequently the olives and grapes were sold while 
they were still growing.^ Various kinds of grain were 
cultivated: wheat, lupine, spelt, vetch, barley. The pro- 
ducts of the farm also included (i) vegetables such as 
turnips, onions, lentils, beans, radishes, asparagus, and that 
which in the words of Cato " surpasses all vegetables " — 
the cabbage; (2) fruit trees such as apples, pears, and figs; 
(3) leafy trees and shrubs which furnished fodder for the 
cattle and wood for use on the estate.* 

Oxen and asses were used as work-animals for drawing 

^ Cato R. R. X, XI. 

^ Ibid. CXXXVI: "in agro Casinate et Venafro in loco bono parti 
octaua corbi diuidat, satis bono septima, tertio loco sexta; si granum 
modio diuidet, parti quinta. in Venafro ager optimus nona parti corbi 
diuidat. si communiter pisunt, qua ex parte politori pars est, earn partem 
in pistrinum politor. hordeuni quinta modio, fabam qtunta modio diui- 
dat " ; ibid. CXXXVII : " uineam curandam partiario. bene curet fundum, 
arbustum, agrum frumentarium. partiario faenum et pabulum, quod 
bubus satis siet. cetera omnia pro indiuiso." 

^ Cato R. R. CXLIV : " oleam legendam hoc modo locare oportet " ; 
CXLVI: "oleam pendentem hac lege uenire oportet"; CXLVII: 
" hac lege uinum pendens uenire oportet." 

* Ibid. XXXIV, XXXV. Vegetables: /oc. aV., VI, VIII. Fruit trees: 
VII. 3, VIII. I. Other trees : VI. 3. " circum coronas et circum uias 
ulmos serito et partim populos, uti frondem ouibus et bubus habeas " ; 
VII. I : " fundum suburbanum arbustum maxime conuenit habere, et 
ligna et uirgae uenire possunt, et domino erit qui utatiir." 



36 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [36 

the plows, for work in the mill, et cetera. These animals 
were not as a rule bred on the farm but were purchased 
from outside, and Cato prescribes three yoke of oxen and 
four asses for an estate of 240 iugera; one yoke of oxen and 
three asses for one of 100 iugera. The larger cattle, which 
were used in field work, were fed during the summer in 
their stalls — the only time they were permitted to graze was 
in the winter. They were not important as a source of 
food, as the meat eaten by the Romans was almost exclu- 
sively lamb or some form of pork.^ One hundred head of 
sheep were estimated to a large estate. Sometimes the 
owner turned over his flock to a lessee and shared the pro- 
duce or leased his winter pasture to the owner of a large 
flock. ^ The other live stock of the farm included poultry 
and geese, pigeons, and swine. ^ The latter were so numer- 
ous that Polybius remarks " nowhere are more pigs slaught- 
ered than in Italy, for sacrifices as well as for family use." * 
The principles of agriculture as set forth by Cato in his 
treatise De re riistica give considerable attention to details, 
and even the most minute items are carefully elucidated. 
The idea of rotation of crops was understood as well as the 
advisability of growing particular crops in certain varieties 

^ Cato R. R. X. I, XI. I ; LIV. 5 : " houes nisi per hiemem, cum non 
arabunt, pasci non oportet"; CLXII, cf. Plaut. Capt. 849: " alium 
porcinam atqiie agninam et pullos galUnaceos" ; Cure. 323, Mil. Glor. 
759-60, Aul. 330- 1- 

*Cato R. R. X. I, CXLIX, CL; Plaut. True. 645-9: 

" Rus mane dudum hine ire me iussit pater, 
ut bubus glandem prandio depromerem. 
post illoc quam ueni, aduenit, si dis placet, 
ad uillam argenttim meo qui debebat patri, 
qui ouis Tarentinas erat mercatus de patre." 

* Cato R. R. LXXXIX : " gallinas et anseres " ; XC : " palumbum." 

* Polyb. II. 15 (trans. Shuckburgh) cf. XII. 4. 



37] DWELLING, TOWN AND COUNTRY 37 

of soil/ Irrigatiom and drainage were to be carried on 
extensively, and fertilization was recognized as extremely 
important." In the words of Cato : " Quid est agrum hem 
coleref bene or are. quid secundum? arare. quid tertiumf 
stercorare." ^ 

In spite of the intensive cultivation, however, the pro- 
duction of grain had already become less profitable than 
the use of the land for grazing purposes/ If the estate 
(fundus) was situated near Rome, of course the trade with 
the city offered a good opportunity for money-making, and 
vegetables of all kinds from the garden, live-stock, firewood 
from the trees and shrubs, all found a market there/ The 
fundus was to a large extent self-sufficing. Certain articles, 
nevertheless, were purchased from without, in which case 
the treatise advises the best places to buy them : the coarse 
clothing for the slaves, jars for storing-purposes {dolia, 
labrd), keys, locks, and bolts were to be obtained at Rome; 
iron implements at Cales and at Minturnae; bronze vessels 
at Capua or Nola; baskets at Suessa or in Campania. ** 

In many cases public affairs or business enterprises might 
make it necessary for the owner of the fundus to have his 

^ Cato R. R. XXVII : " Sementim facito, ocinuni, iiiciam, faenum grae- 
cum, fabam, eruum, pabulum bubus. alteram et tertiam pabuli sationem 
facito. deinde alia fruges serito. scrobis in ueriiacto oleis, ulmis, uitibus, 
£cis: simul cum semine serito. si erit locus siccus, turn oleas per semen- 
tim serito, et quae ante satae erunt, teneras turn supputato et arbor es 
ablaqueato"; XXXIV, XXXV. 

^Irrigation and drainage: ibid. II. 4, OLV; construction of drains: 
XLIII. i; fertilization: V. 8, XXXVII. 2, 3; XXXVIII. 4. 

Ubid.'LKl. I. 

* Cato Mem. Diet. 6^, ed. Jord. p. 108 : " a sene Catone cum quaereretur, 
quid maxime in re familiari e.vpediret, respondit: bene pascere; quid 
secundum? satis bene pascere; quid tertium? bene arare." 

Cato R. R. VII. r, VIII. 2. 

« Ibid. CXXXV. 1-3. 



38 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [38 

residence at Rome. The superintendence of the farm work 
was then left to the uilicus, and this office was already very 
extensive. The proprietor visited the villa only at intervals 
to go over the accounts, to hear reports, and to issue in- 
structions.^ The general prevalence of the uilicus, which 
thus made possible the prolonged absence of the master, is 
an indication of a growing tendency to regard the city as 
the permanent home and the country as a place of retire- 
ment and rest. This sentiment finds expression in Terence : 
" My country estate offers me this opportunity — that I 
never become bored with either the farm or the city, but 
whenever I grow weary of one, turn to the other." ^ 

* Cato R. R. II, V, CX-LII. The uilicus is further discussed in the 
chapter on " Slaves ". 

*Ter, Eun. 971-3; cf. Liv. XXII. 15, 2: " arbusta uineaeque et consita 
omnia magis amoenis quant necessariis fructibus", indicating that at 
the time of the invasion of Hannibal the land viras already being planted 
for other than utiHtarian purposes. 



CHAPTER II 
Women and Marriage 

In the Roman household or familia were included the 
husband and wife, their children (sons or unmarried 
daughters), the wives and children of the married sons, 
the slaves, and finally, the household gods. The head of 
the familia was the pater, and the property and things under 
his control were referred to as sua res, res fa/miliaris, or 
res communis. The term familia itself is joined in formal 
expressions with domus as domus familiaque.^ 

Legal marriage could be contracted only by people politi- 
cally capable of forming the alliance : a f reeborn man could 
not marry a freedwoman. Exemption from this prohibi- 
tion, however, could be granted by the Senate.- Marquardt 
states in general that the legal age for marriage was four- 
teen for the man and twelve for the woman, but that in 
practise the man did not marry until after the assumption 
of the toga uirilis (seventeen years), and the girl also mar- 
ried later than the age mentioned above. The most exact 
reference to the age of the girl in the Palliatae is in the 

^ Plut. Cat. maj. 24; Ter. Hec. : the wife and child of the married son 
living with the parents of the husband, cf. Ad. 910 : " traduce et matrem 
et familiam omnem ad nos " ; Phorm. 571 : " ipsam cum omni familia " ; 
Plant. Aul. Pro. 2: "ego Lar sum familiaris ex hac familia"; Cato 
R. R. passim. Plant. Trin. 114; Liv. XXII. 53. 11: "sua res"; Plant. 
Cure. 552, Trin. 38 : " res priuata " ; Stick. 145, 525 : " res familiaris " ; 
Amph. 499: "res communis"; Cato R. R. CXXXIV. 2, CXXXIX, 
CXLI. 2 : " domus familiaque." 

* Liv. XXXIX. 19. 5. 

39] 39 



40 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [40 

Phormio of Terence, in which a marriage is arranged for 
a girl of fourteen. That this was the accepted age is sug- 
gested by the words ** non manebat aetos uirginis meam 
neclegentiamJ' ^ Marriage was permitted between first 
cousins from the time of the second Punic War.^ 

The consent of the patresfamilias was the essential con- 
dition of the validity of the marriage. The pafresfcmiilia^ 
of course were not in every case the fathers of the young 
couple, as when the paternal grandfather still lived, it was 
he who had the power as head of the house. It is interest- 
ing tO' note that while for the marriage of a man, the con- 
sent of both the father and of the grandfather — and if he 
were alive, of the great-grandfather — was asked, in the 
case of the marriage of a girl, the consent of the grand- 
father was asked without that of the father.^ 

In arranging a match, social and financial equality were 
usually considered more desirable than extreme wealth.* 
There were of course exceptions to this general feeling. 

^ Marquardt, Vie privee desR.,vo\. i, p. 36. Ter. Phorm. 570-1 cf. 1017. 

*Liv. XLII. 34. 3 (171 B. C). "pater mihi uxor em fratris sui filiam 
dedit." 

'Girard, Manuel elemeiitaire de droit roniain (Paris, 1911), pp. 155-^. 
Ter. Phorm, yzz '• " infirmas nuptias," because the consent of the pater 
has not been obtained; ihid. 231-3: " itane tandem uxorem duxit Antipho 
iniussu meo ? | nee meum imperium, ac mitto imperiutn, non simultatem 
meam \ reuereri saltern"; Ad. 334: " ita obsecraturum ut liceret hanc 
sibi uxorem ducere." Even in a later period when respect for the 
patria potestas was declining, a marriage which a youth had been forced 
by the pater to contract against his own wishes, was held to be legal, cf. 
P. Juventius Celsus, consul 129 A. D., Dig. XXIII. 2. (de ritn 
nuptiarum). 22, Karlowa, Romische Rechtsgeschichte (Leipsig, 1885), 
vol, i, p. 706. 

* Considerations in arranging a marriage: Plaut. Aul. 212, et seq.: 
genus, iides, facta, aetas. Undesirability of a wealthy marriage for a 
poor girl: Plaut. Aul. 226, et seq., Trin. 451, et seq.; Ter. Phorm. 653: 
"in seruitutem pauperem ad ditem dari" (for in matrimonium) . 



41 ] WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 41 

The humble client of Cato, for example, gladly accepted 
the proposal that he give his daughter in marriage to his 
noble patron. Probably in this case, however, the natural 
and expected deference of a cliens to the wish of his pa^- 
tronus, was effective in influencing his attitude. That such 
a union of persons in different stations was infrequent is 
suggested by the statement that " this proposal at first as 
might be expected, astonished the secretary, who . . . had 
never dreamed that his humble family would be allied with 
a house which could boast of consulates and triumphs." ^ 
The unpleasant position of a poor man who' foolishly 
gives his daughter in marriage to a rich husband is pictured 
to us in the following terms : 

You are a rich man, Megadorus, a man of influential connec- 
tions, while I am the poorest of the poor. Now if I gave my 
daughter to you in marriage, the thought suggests itself to me 
that you would be like an ox and I, like an ass; when I was 
yoked with you and could not bear an equal share of the 
burden, I, the ass, would lie prostrate in the mud, and you, the 
ox, would not consider me any more than if I had never been 
born. I would find you a bad match for me; my own class 
would laugh at me; and I would have nowhere to turn for 
refuge if there should be a divorce. The asses would tear me 
with their teeth, the oxen would gore me with their horns. It 
is a great risk — to rise from the rank of the asses to that of 
the oxen.- 

The celebration of the marriage itself was preceded by 
the rite of betrothal. The agreement was cemented by the 
formula spondesne . . . spondeo, but except for the in- 
sistence upon the utterance of these specific words, no 
formal ceremony was called for. The patres of the young 

* Plut. Cat. maj. 24. 

* Plaut. Aul. 226, et seq. 



42 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [42 

couple arranged the match between them, or the suitor ad- 
dressed himself personally to the pater of the girl. Wit- 
nesses of the betrothal contract were not required. They 
were frequently present, however, and possibly this was 
the general practice. The betrothal did not bind the two 
parties unalterably to the consummation of the marriage, 
as it might be broken off by a repudium on either side.^ 

The oldest form of marriage was the manus marriage. 
In this the wife came absolutely into the power of her hus- 
band and possessed a peculium only on sufferance. The 
condition of a wife in such a union is expressed by Plautus 
in the words : " A virtuous woman should have no peculium 
without the knowledge of her husband . . . whatever be- 
longs to you is all of it absolutely the property of your 
spouse." ^ Certain passages in the comedies, however, indi- 
cate another form of marriage, a form in which the wife 
remained under the power of her pater and retained the 
right to her own property. The plays do not give us the 
name of this form, but it apparently corresponds to the 
marriage sine conventione in manum.^ 

^Arranged between patres: Ter. And. 102; Ex incert. incert fab. 
VIII, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 114: " sponden tuam gnatam Alio uxorem 
meo"; Liv. XLII. 34. 3. Between suitor and pater: Plut. Cat. maj. 
24; Plaut. Trin. 1157-8, Aul. 238, 256-7, Cure. 674, Poen. 1157; Pacuvius 
Dtilorestes II (12), 'Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 91. Repudium: Plaut. Aul. 
783; Ter. Phorm. 928; cf. And. 148-9. 

'Ter. And. 2^7: "in manum"; Titinius Fullonia I (4), Ribb. Frag. 
Com. p. 13s : " ego me mandatam meo uiro male arhitror \ qui rem 
dispcrdit, et trmm dofein conicst" ; Plaut. Cas. 197-202. 

' Plaut. Stick. 53 : two married daughters refer to themselves as in 
patri' potestate ; Men. 799-805 : the father of the wife is angry not at 
the unfaithfulness of the husband but at his stealing gold and jewels 
from her; cf. Cato Orat. reliq. XXXII. i, ed. Jord. p. 54: " principio 
nobis mulier magnam dotem attulit, turn magnam pecuniam recipit, 
quant in uiri potestatem non conmittat. earn pecuniam uiro mutuam dat. 
postea, ubi irata facta est, seruum reeepticium sectari et Hagitare uirum 



.^-j WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 43 

There were three methods of entering into the manus 
marriage, (i) Confarreatio, or reHgious marriage. This 
had existed from a very early date. It was doubtless still 
retained among conservative aristocratic families, but it 
was becoming less frequent, and in any case was probably 
never open to plebeians. (2) Coemptio. This form is often 
described as " le mariage civil a cote du mariage religieux, 
le mariage plebeien a cote du mariage patricien ". In it 
the bride was acquired in the same way as a slave or a valu- 
able piece of property. (3) Usiis—hy prescription, if the 
wife remained with the husband continuously for one year. 
Rossbach describes tl^is form as " das Resultat der Periode, 
wo man der manus schon zu entgehen suchte, ohne sie jedoch 
aufheben zu wollen ". An example of the form is given 
in Plautus.^ 

The introduction of the marriage without manus, how- 
ever, presented new difficulties. This marriage did not 
require any intervention of public authority. Its validity 
did not depend on: the betrothal, the festivities and cere- 
monies, or the drawing up of a document regulating the 
pecuniary relations of the couple (instrumentum dotale), 
but on the other hand it was not formed simply by the 

iubet"; Ennius Cresphontes III (7), Ribb. Frag. Trag. pp. 29-30: 
" Iniuria abs te adficior indigna, pater. 
Nam si inprobum esse Cressipontem existintas, 
Cur me huic locabas nuptiis? Sin est probus. 
Cur talem inuitam inuitum cogis Unqucre?" 
Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 39. 

Karlowa, Romische Rechtsgeschichte (Leipsic, 1885-1901), vol. ii, pp. 
167-9, in his discussion of the marriage without manus considers that 
this form first became frequent in the lower classes of society and 
from there found its way more and more into the higher classes. On 
the basis of Macrob. I. 6 he concludes that "im Stande der Freige- 
lassenen die Ehe ohne manus verbreiteter war en, als im Stande der 
Freigeborenen ". 

^Girard, op. cit., pp. 151-3; Rossbach, Romische Ehe (Stuttgart. 
1853), p. 65. Plaut. True. 392-3. 



44 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [44 

interchange of nuptial consent. In some cases the dmtio 
uxoris in domum mariti — the leading of the bride to her 
new home — was regarded as the criterion of completed 
marriage/ 

The ceremony with its careful preparations to make 
sanctas nuptias - customarily took place in the home of the 
bride. While the comedies give instances of the cena. taking 
place in the home of the groom, it is in that case possible 
that a large part of the marriage ceremony was omitted. 
In the AuMaria of Plautus the groom provides the pro- 
visions for the banquet, but this occurrence is plainly re- 
garded as unusual and surprising, and is explained by one 
of the characters of the play on the ground of the poverty 
of the father of the bride. Moreover, even here, the latter 
feels it incumbent upon him to purchase at least " a trifle 
of incense and floral wreaths " to decorate his house for 
the ceremony, and the fact that the banquet, although he 
does not pay for the provisions, is nevertheless served in 
his house, indicates this as the recognized usage.® 

The ceremony was a lengthy affair. Auspices were taken 
first in order to assure propitious conditions. It was neces- 
sary that the household gods of the family O'f the bride 
and of the family of the groom should approve in order 
that the marriage prove f-ortunata. In the adornment of 
the house for the ceremony, therefore, wreaths were hung 
on the hearth for the Lar and incense burned. The cere- 
money ended with a cena.^ 

^ Girard, loc. cit., cf. Muirhead, Historical Introduction to the Private 
Law of Rome (London, 1899), p. ^Z- 

' Ter. Ad. 899-900: "sanctas nuptias .. .cotisumunt diem." 

^ Plaut. Cure. 728, Aul. 261, et seq., 294-5: "hie non poterat de suo j 
senex opsonari Aliai nuptiis?" Ibid. 384-7. 

* Plaut. Cas. 86: " ultro ibit nuptum, non manebat auspices"; Aul. 
386-7; Ter. Ad. 699: " abi domum ac deos conprecare ut uxorem ac- 
cersas"; Ex incert. incert. fab. XXIV, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 117: "cum 
tetulit coronam ob colligandas nuptias." 



^r] WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 45 

At nightfall the banquet came to an end, and the deductio 
took place — the leading of the bride to her new home. The 
deductio was the occasion for a festal procession preceded 
by flute-players and torch-bearers, which finally congre- 
gated in a merry throng before the house of the groom/ 
Upon her arrival the noua nupta annointed the posts of the 
door and bound them with bands of wool.^ Great care had 
to be taken in crossing the sill to avoid the ill omen of 
stumbling.^ 

The existence of a dowry was the distinguishing feature 
of inatrimonium, for without a dowry marriage with 
equality on both sides was considered impossible.* The 
size of the dowry naturally varied. In the Heauton of 
Terence a modest dowry of only two talents is given, but in 
the Andria and in the Mercafor of Plautus ten talents are 
mentioned ; in the Cistellaria twenty talents ; Polybius tells 
us the dowry of the wife of L. Aemilius Paulus was twenty- 
five talents ; and in some cases the amount reached as high 
as fifty talents.^ 

1 Plaut. Cas. 118, 533, 798, 856: " hidos in uiam nuptialis"; Ter. Hec. 
135 : " uxorem deducit domum " ; Ad. 907 : " hymenaeum turbas lampadas 
tibicinas " ; Pacuvius Dulorestes I (4) , Ribb. Frag. Trag. p. 91 : 
" hymenaeum fremunt \ Aequales, aula resonit crepitii musico." 

2 Don. ad. Ter. Hec. I. 2. 60. " uxor dicitur uel ah ungendis postibus 
et Agenda lana, id est quod cum puellae nuberent, maritorum pastes 
ungebant ibiquc lanam Hgebant." 

^ Plaut. Cas. 815-6: " sensim super attolle limen pedes, noua nupta." 
* Plaut. Trin. 690-1 : " in concubinatum tibi, | si sine dote <Cdem'^, 
dedisse magi' quam in matrimonium, " cf. Ter. Phorm. 653 : ** in serui- 
tutem pauperem ad ditem dari"; Ad. 758-9, Phorm. 120, And. 396; 
Plaut. Aul. 27, 191, Cure. 664, Trin. 505, et seq. 

5 Ter. Heaut. 838, 940, And. 951 ; Plaut. Merc. 703, Cist. 561 ; Polyb. 
XVIII. 35, XXXII. 13. The dowry was not usually paid all at one 
time. The Roman law enjoined the payment of money due to women 
as dowry in three annual installments, " the- personal outfit having been 
first paid within ten months according to custom." Sometimes half the 
dowry was paid down at once to the husbands. (Polyb. XXXII. 13.) 



46 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [46 

The amount of the dowry greatly influenced the relations 
of the wife to her husband, a large dowry naturally giving 
the wife more assurance and independence. The question 
of the dowry is frequently brought up in Plautus and is 
always the subject of satirical comment and adverse criti- 
cism^ — the husband has sold his authority in receiving the 
dowry (Asin. 87) ; a dowry and money seem attractive 
before marriage but not after (Epid. 180) ; to marry a 
rich wife is to bring a barking dog intO' the house (MU. 
Glor. 681) ; and so on.^ These and similar passages in- 
dicate that whenever there was a large dowry, the manus 
of the husband was correspondingly weakened. 

Lacombe, La Famille dans la society romaine (Paris, 
1889), p. 191, et seq., maintains the following theory: that 
as there were no cautiones nor actions for dowry before 
231 B. C, it is probable that the custom of the dowry was 
established in Rome about the beginning of the second cen- 
tury B. C. ; that as Plautus is one of the first witnesses for 
the existence of the dowry, his criticism of it is possibly to 
be explained on the ground of its being a still recent innova- 
tion, especially as Valerius Maximus (IV. 4) seems tO' 
indicate the appearance of the custom of dowry at approxi- 
mately this time ; that the presence of the dowry made mar- 
riage in manu undesirable, and therefore the bride came to^ 
remain more and more in patria po testate. 

This theory, however, is entirely unsubstantiated. The 
passage of Servius (Aul. Gell. IV. 3. i, 2.) explains the 
lack of actions for dowry by the absence of divorce, and 
the passage from Valerius Maximus does not appear to 
establish the introduction of the dowry but rather its recog- 

^Cf. Plaut. Most. 281, 703, et seq.; Titinius Procilia III (i), Ribb. 
Frag. Com. p. 144 : " dotibus deleniti ultro etiam uxoribus ancillantur " ; 
Caecilius Statius Plocium, IRibb. Frag. Com. p. 58, et seq. : " quae nisi 
dotem omnia | quae nolis, habet." 



47] WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 47 

nized necessity. While among the fragments of the Tables 
there is none that refers to a wife's marriage provision 
(dos), it is hardly conceivable that it was as yet unknown/ 
Women were still legally regarded as dependent. Ac- 
cording to the conservative idea, which Cato wished to up- 
hold, women were not allowed to transact even private 
business sine tutore auctore, and were in manu . . . 
parentium, fratrum, uirorum.^ As the manus marriage 
became less frequent, the woman remained, when not in 
the power of her husband, under the power of her own 
paterfamilias, or if she was sui juris, under the guardian- 
ship of her agnates. The passages from Livy, cited below, 
in regard to the authority exercised over a woman are ob- 
scure. In the expression mulieres dammatas cognatis aut in 
quorum manu essent, it is uncertain ( i ) whether he refers 
to two separate classes of women, i. e. those who were in 
manu and those who were not, in which case cognatis is 
used in a general sense to include agnates, or (2) whether 
he uses the term cognatis to refer to those who had origi- 
nally been the agnates of the wife, and were now her cog- 
nates. Mommsen notes these two passages, but he does not 
settle the question as to the meaning of the term cognatis, 
as he renders it by " Verwandten ", which is equally in- 
definite.^ According to Livy, a husband could confer on 
his wife by will the right of choosing her own guardian 
and of alienating her property.* If the woman had neither 

^ Muirhead, op. cit., pp. 11 1-2. 

^'Liv. XXXIV. 2. II. 

' Plaut. Stick. S3 : " in patri' potestate ". Girard, op. cit., p. 167. Liv. 
XXXIX. 18. 6 : " mulieres damnatas cognatis aut in quorum manu essent 
tradebant"; Liv. Ep. XLVIII: " cognatorum decreto necatae sunt". 
Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht (Leipsig, 1899), P- i9- 

* Liv. XXXIX. 19. 5 : " datio deminutio . . . tutoris optio item essent, 
quasi ei uir testamento dedisset." 



48 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [48 

a statutory or a testamentary guardian, the magistrates had 
the right to appoint a guardian for her. The patromis was 
the guardian of an unmarried liber ta.^ 

In free marriage the dowry became the property of the 
husband, and the fact that he was as a rule under an obli- 
gation to restore the dos afterwards, did not diminish the 
extent of his powers. According to the civil law of the 
Republic, the husband was legally entitled to keep the dos 
even after the termination of the marriage, altho it was 
customary for him to return it. It therefore became the 
usual practise for the person giving the dos, to bind the 
husband by an express agreement — a stipulation known as 
the' cautio rei uxoriae — to return the dos on the dissolution 
of the marriage. About 200 B. C. an action, actio rei 
uxoriae, was granted for the recovery of the dos, even 
where there had been no express agreement for its return." 
In regard to the rest of their property, the husband and 
wife in the marriage without manvis remained in theory in- 
dependent of each other, altho the woman might of course 
entrust her property to her husband.^ This condition of 
things was favorable to the concentration of capital in the 
hands of women, and they gained increasing independence 
along these lines, altho the state attempted to check it by 
the lex Voconia " ne q^iis . . . heredem, idrginem, neue 
tnulierem faceret.*' * 

' Liv. XXXIX. 9. 7. 

* Sohm, Institutes (Oxford, 1907), p. 467, et seq. - 

* Cato Oraf. reliq. XXXII. i, ed. Jord. p. 54; cf. Plaut. Men. 799- 
805. Girard, op. cit., p. 167. 

* The date of this law is disputed. Twiss, in his edition of Livy 
(Oxford, 1840-1), XLI. 28n., takes up the question. He points out 
that Cicero {in Verr. II. i. 42) states that Voconius established con- 
cerning those of whom a census should be taken after A. Postumius 
and Q. Fulvius were censors, so that these censors seem clearly to 
have been mentioned in the law. The appointment of these censors is 



^g] WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 49 

The exact date at which divorce was admitted to Rome 
is uncertain. The first case was given by the ancients them- 
selves at that of Sp. Carvilius in 231 B. C, but probably 
this signifies little more than that it was the first which was 
generally known. An earlier case is mentioned in 306 B. 
C.^ When the mantis had been acquired by the religious 
ceremony of confarreatio, a contrary religious act, the 
diffarreatio, was required to dissolve the marriage, but mar- 
riages by coemptio or usus were dissolved by remcmcipatio.^ 
Cicero gives the formula of repudiation of the XII Tables 
as claues adimere, exigere, but Muirhead believes; that the 
procedure to which Cicero alludes, can hardly have applied 
to the marriage contracted by confarreatio or coemptio, 

mentioned XLI. 27, and there is no lacuna intervening. Therefore, it 
follows that Livy treated of the Voconian law at the end of the tx)ok. 
Cicero {de Senect. 14) states that the Voconian law was passed in the 
consulship of Caepio and Philippus, who were consuls five years later. 
Twiss explains this discrepancy on the grounds that Livy and Cicero 
differed as to the date of Cato, Livy making him five years older than 
Cicero does. Cicero {loc. cit.) writes that Cato advocated the Voconian 
law at the age of sixty-five, which year of the life of Cato would fall 
according to Cicero's chronology in the year of the consulship of 
Caepio and Philippus, while according to Livy the sixty-fifth year of 
Cato's life would be five years earlier and therefore fall in the consul- 
ship of Sp. Postumius and Q. Mucius, i. e. 174 B. C. where Twiss puts 
the law; cf. XXXIX. 40. I2n. "qui sexfum et octogesimum annum 
agens causam dixerit": according to Cicero (de Senect. 10) Cato was 
born the year before Q. Fabius Maximus was first made consul. 
Therefore, since it is agreed that he died in the consulship of L. 
Marcius Censorinus and M'. Manilius in the first year of the Third 
Punic War, it follows that he lived only eighty-five years. Doubtless, 
however, Livy used other authorities, for by the sentence following, 
" nonagesimo anno Ser. Galbam ad populi adduxerit iudicium," in the 
year in which Cato accused Galba, which was the last year of his life, 
Livy makes Cato ninety years old. Therefore there is a discrepancy 
of five years in the estimates of the age of Cato, which may account 
for the discrepancy in the date of the law. 

^ Aul. Cell. rV. 3. 1-2; Val. Max. IL 9. 2 cf. Liv. ,IX. 43. 25. 

* Sohm, op. cit., p. 474, et seq. 



^O SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [50 

and probably referred to the loose and informal plebeian 
marriage.^ The formulae tuas res habeto and i foras are 
found in Plautus.^ 

Under the manus marriage the wife did not have the 
power either to require or prevent a divorce, but the right 
of breaking off the marriage without manus was naturally- 
permitted to both those whose consent was required for its 
formation. If the dissolution of the marriage was; due to 
the fault of the wife, the husband was permitted tO' make 
certain deductions in returning the dos, and similarly if the 
divorce had been occasioned by the husband, he was sub- 
jected to certain penalties. During the second century B. 
C. divorce became more easy and frequent until in the late 
Republic there was no need of serious motive.^ 

There is some indication in Plautus that when the husband 
had been absent three years, and the wife had not received 
news of him, a new marriage might be legally contracted.* 
This three-year law does not appear definitely stated 

^ Cic. Phil. II. 28. 69; Muirhead, op. cit. pp. 112-3. 
^ Plaut. Trin. 266: "tuas res tibi habeto"; Amph. 928: " tibi habeat 
res tuas, reddas meas " ; Cas. 210-2 : " i foras." 

* Girard, op. cit., p. 160, et seq. ; iSohm, op. cit., p. 469. Divorce by 
wife: Plaut. Amph. 928; Mil. Glor. 1 166-7: " hasce esse aedis dicaa 
dotalis tuas, \ hinc senem aps te abiisse, postquam feceris diuortium". 
Divorce by husband: Plaut. Men. 113, Cas. 210-2; Ter. Hec. 154-5: 
" reddi patri autem, quoi tu nil dicas uiti, \ superbumst " ; ibid. 502 : 
" renumeret dotem hue, eat"; Plut. A em. Paul. 5: "after living with 

her [Papiria] for a considerable time, divorced her No reason for 

their separation has come down to us." Cato Orat. reliq. LXVIII. 
I, ed. Jord. p. 68: " Vir cum diuortium fe£it, mulieri iudex pro censore 
est, imperium quod uidetur habet; si quid peruerse taetreque factum est 
a muliere, multatur; si uinum bibit, si cum alieno uiro probri quid fecit, 
condemnatur" ; ibid. LXVIII. 2. Cic. ad Fam. VIII. 7: "Paula Valeria, 
soror Triari, diuortium sine causa, quo die uir e prouincia uenturus 
erat, fecit." 

* Plaut. Stich. 29-30: "nam uiri nostri domo ut abierunt \ hie tertius 
annus." 



rj-i WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 5 1 

among the laws of the period, but its existence is suggested 
by analogy with later legislation. The following laws under 
the Empire offer a source from which the inference may be 
drawn: (i) the right of postliminium was not exercised 
on the wife, and after the proscribed time, post constitutum 
tempus, she could remarry (D. XLIX. 15. 8) ; (2) in case 
of the absence of the father, if nO' news had been received 
from him, the children might contract a marriage after 
three years had elapsed (D. XXIII. 2. 10, 11); (3) th^ 
wife might remarry if the husband had been absent four 
years for military service and she had been unable to obtain 
information about him (C. V. 17. 7). 

The approved occupations of the Roman matron are 
largely simimarized by the formula of farewell addressed 
to her by her husband — cura rem, communem,} Thesei 
occupations endured in greater or less degree even with 
the increase of luxury. She superintended the manage- 
ment of the household;^ occupied herself with spinning 
and weaving; ^ nursed her children or, if a nurse was em- 
ployed, at least shared in the care of them and watched! 
over their education.* At meals she took her place with 
her husband, sitting not reclining,^ and was often given an 

^ Plaut. Stick. 145: "curate igitur familiarem rem ut potestis optume"; 
ibid. 525; Amph. 499: " cura rem rommunem." 

* Plaut. Cos. 144 : " obsignate cellas, referte anulum ad me " ; ibid. 261 : 
" me sinas curate ancillas, quae mea est curatio " ; Pers. 267 ; Fabius 
Pictor Graecae Historiae 27, Peter, Hist. Rom. Rel. vol. i, p. 39: 
" Fabius Pictor in annalibus suis scripsit matronam, quod loculos, in 
quibus erant claues celiac uinariae resignauisset, a suis inedia mori 
coactam." 

^ Plaut. Men. 120-1, Cas. 170-1, Mil. Glor. 686-9; Ten Heaut. 293. 

*The question of nurses is considered in detail in the chapter on 
"Qiildren." The wife of Cato nursed her children herself cf. Plut. 
Gat. maj. 20. 

* Decimus Laberius Compitalia I (2) , Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 284 : 
"mater familias tua in lecto aduerso sedet"; Plaut. Amph. 804, 
Stick. 515. 



C2 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [52 

active part in his affairs, feeling that she should be con- 
sulted on all matters which concerned the interests of the 
family and especially the marriage of their children.^ 
While it was not customary for her to go out unaccom- 
panied nor to be present at the entertainments of men, there 
was a certain amount of visiting among friends and neigh- 
bors, and she might also' attend religious ceremonies, solemn 
banquets, and public spectacles.^ 

The commonly accepted view that the conventional limi- 
tation of the Roman matron's sphere of interest to the 
household necessarily implied a position much inferior ta 
that of the woman of to-day is a view which must be td 
some extent modified. The Roman household and its affairs 
were larger and more varied in scope than are the modern. 
Many more articles of domestic use were made at home, 
and upon the matron, as has been said, developed the super- 
intendence of the household slaves in their various activities. 
A realization of the number of slaves and of their place in 
Roman society and industry is significant as an evidence 
of the amount of responsibility which the Romans entrusted 
to their women. 

The Roman matron was treated with deference by every 
member of the household, and the slave, male or female, 
who was impudent to her in any way did not go unpunished.' 
The comedies, in particular, prove the general prevalence 
of this attitude of respect, for although they ridicule and 

* Influence of women cf. Plut. Cat. maj. 8; Liv. XXXIX. 11, 3, 
XXXVIII. 57. 7. 

2 Plaut. Am ph. 929: " tub en' mi ire comites"; Merc. 404, Stick. 
113-4; Naevius Danae VI (3 inc. com. 4) 8, Ribb. Frag. Trag. p. 7 
" desubito famam tollunt, si quam solam uidere in uia." Ter, Eun. 626 
"in conuiuium illam?" Cato Orat. reliq. XXXIX, ed. Jord. pp. 56-7 
" domo . . . egredittir ad ceteras matronas." Ter. Hec. 592 : " tuas arnicas 
te et cognatas deserere et festos dies"; Pol. XXXII. 12. 

' Plaut. Men. 620, et seq. 



c^-j WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 53 

satirize all classes of citizens from the newly emancipated 
slaves to the supposedly dignified senators/ they never 
reflect in any way upon the virtue of the matron.^ Their 
characterizations, moreover, give us some idea of her es- 
sential traits, and in practically every cas^— in the inde- 
pendently wealthy matrons of the Phormio or of the 
Menmchmi, in the gentle Sostrata of the Hecyra, in the 
unjustly accused Alcmena of the Amphitru,o, the matron 
always maintains a proper sense of her own dignity and 
superiority. Not only in their general delineation of her 
but also in specific terms the comic writers emphasize this 
fact. Such expressions as '' matronali pttdore " and " tiiam 
maiestatem et nominis matronae sanctitudinem" are con- 
clusive in their significance.^ 

The general increase of wealth, which affected practically 
every phase of social life in this period, inevitably influenced 
the character and position oif women. The Oppian law, 
passed in 215 B. C, had vainly attempted to check their in- 
creasing tendency towards extravagance and display, and 
after its repeal in 195 B. C. the Roman women began: more 
and more tO' array themselves in gorgeous toilets, to wear 
an abundance of rich jewelry, and to^ drive through the 
city in expensive carriages. They employed both male and 

^Ridicule of senators: Plaut. Epid. 189, Cas. 536, Asin. 871. 

2 Cf. Don. ad Ter. Hec. V. 2. 8. 

'Decimus Laberius Compitalia II (3), Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 285; 
Afranius Suspecta IX. 4, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 206. 

It is interesting to note that the Romans did not desire extreme 
beauty in their wives. Ennius voices this preference for the golden 
mean, cf. Melanippa VI (6), Ribb. Frag. Trag. p. 52: Aul. Gell. V. 
11: "inter enim pulcherrimam feminam et deformissimam media forma 
quaedam est . . . qualis ab Q. Ennius ' in Melanippa ' [sic Rott. Vat.] 
perquam eleganti uocabulo stata dicitur . . . Ennius autem in ista quam 
dixi tragoedia eas fere feminas ait incolumi pudicitia esse, quae stata 
forma forent." 



24 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [54 

female slaves in their personal service and required a long 
list of workmen of every kind to satisfy their wants. Styles 
in dress apparently changed almost as rapidly and were 
adopted almost as eagerly as at present. Cato is of course 
prejudiced in his description of '' mulieres opertae auro 
purpuraque; arsinea, rete, diadema, coronas aureas, rusceas 
fascias, gaiheos lineos, pelles, redimicula" , of women whoi 
" capillum cinere unguitant, ut rutilus esse^t", but others; 
recognized the same condition.^ Consider for example 
one of the speeches found in Plautus : 

" Ep. sed uestita, cmrata, ornata ut lepide\, ut concinne, ut 

noue! 
Pe. quid erat indutaf an regillam induculmn an mendi- 

culanvf 
Ep. inipluuiatam, ut istaec faciunt uestimentis nomina. 
Pe. utin impluuium induta fuerit? Ep. q?A,id istuc tarn 

mirabile est? 
quasi non fundis exornatae multae incedant per uicts, 
at tributus quom imperatus est, negant pendi potis: 
illis quibu' tributus maior penditur, pendi potest, 
quid istae quae uestei quotannis nomina inueniunt noua? 
tunicam rallanij tunicwni spissa<m, linteolum caesicium, 
indusiatami, patagiatam, caltulam aut crocotulam, 
subparum aut — subnimium, ricamv, basilicu/m aut exoticum, 
cumatile aut plumatile, carinum out cerinum — gerrae 

maxumae! 

* Oppian law cf. Liv. XXXIV. i. 3. " ne qua mulier plus semunciam 
auri haberet nee uestimento uersicolori uteretur, neu iuncto uehiculo in 
urbe oppidoue aut propius inde mille passus nisi sacrorum puhlicorum 
causa ueheretur." Plaut. Mil. Glor. 691-6, Aul. 167-9, 498, et seq., Epid. 
222, et seq., Trin. 250-5. Caecilius iStatius Karine I (i), II (2), Ribb. 
Frag. Com. p. 53. Titinius Barhatus II (8), 'Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 133. 
Liv. XXXIX. 44. 2 on the censorship of Cato: " ornamenta et uestem 
muliebrem et uehicula, quae pluris quam quindecim milium aeris essent, 
deciens pluris in censum referre iuratores iussit." Polyb. XXXII. 12. 
Cato Orig. 113, 114, 115, Peter, Hist. Rom. Rel. vol. i, pp. 91-2. 



re] WOMEN AND MARRIAGE 55 

ccmi quo que etirnn ademptumst nomen. Pe. quif Ep. 
uocant Laconicum. 
' haec uocabula amctiones suhigunt ut facicmt uiros." {Epid. 
222-235). 

Many of the Roman women interested themselves in the 
emotional foreign cults. This condition is illustrated by 
the fact that the Bacchanalia on their introduction to Rome 

" primo sacraritmi feminarum fuisse, nee quemquam 

eo uirum admitti solitum." ^ It is an indication of the 
changing position of women that at this time statues were 
set up in the provinces to Roman women, although there 
was conservative protest against this.'' 

As the main object of marriage was the perpetuation of 
the family and its religion — sacrorum familiaeque — both 
the family and the state endeavored to encourage it.' 
Praemia patrum are mentioned although it is uncertain of 
what they definitely consisted, and in 168 B. C. lihertvni 
who had a son five years of age or over, were given certain 
political privileges.* 

In spite of this official attitude, however, repugnance for 
the constraint of marriage, the irresponsible spirit of com- 
fort, the solicitous attentions of relatives and friends who 
might hope to receive a share of the inheritance — all these 

1 Liv. XXXIX. 13. & 

* Cato Orat. Cens., ed. Jord. p. 51 : " extant Catonis in censura uocl- 
ferationes, tnulieribus Romanis in prouinciis statuas poni." 

'Liv. XLV. 40. 7: "sacrorum familiaeque." Plaut. Aul. 148-50: 
" Uteris procreandis — \ ita di faxint — uolo te uxorem \ domum ducere," 
cf. Capt. 889, Mil. Glor. 682; Ter. Hec. 119; (Ennius Andromeda II 
(i), Ribb. Frag. Trag. p. 27, Cresphontes IV (2), Ribb. Frag. Trag. 
p. 30 ; Plut. Cat. maj. 24 ; "I only desire to leave behind me more 
sons of my race, and more citizens to serve the state"; ibid. 16: "none 
of a man's actions, his marriage, his family , . . ought to be uncon- 
trolled." 

*Aul. Gell. V. 19. 15: "praemia patrum." Liv. XLV. 15. 1, 2. 



56 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [56 

considerations combined to make celibacy desirable. The 
growing spirit of the times is well expressed by an eligible 
bachelor in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, who says : 

My house is free ; I too am free ; I want to enjoy life. Thanks 
to my own riches I could take to myself a wife well-dowered 
and of noble lineage, but I don't want to bring a barking dog 
into the house. ... As long as I have a host of relatives, what 
need have I for children? Now I live in comfort and happi- 
ness, doing just as I please and following my own inclinations. 
{MU. Glor. 678, et seq.) 



CHAPTER III 

Children and Education 

(a) children 

The authority of the head of the house over his children 
is denoted in Plautus most frequently by imperium, a gen- 
eral term which is applied as well to his authority over his 
wife and over the slaves. The terms patria potestas, ius, 
patria maiestas are also used.^ As to the extent of this 
authority Marquardt states that at Rome the natural rela- 
tion of the physical and moral dependence of children upon 
the father is pushed to extremes, giving the father the abso- 
lute power to dispose of his children and authorizing him 
to expose them, sell them, or have them put to death. The 
numerous references to^ exposure in the plays of this period, 
however, are due rather to the conventional type of plot 
of the Palliatae, which hinged so often on the loss of a 
child and the subsequent recognition than to any widespread 
practice. While the absolute power of the father over hisi 
children was recognized as legal, it was mitigated by filial 
devotion (pietas) on the part of the children and by custom 
and natural afifection on the part of the parents. The power 
of life and death, moreover, was limited by law, and in- 
stances of the exercise of this power during the later Re- 

^ Imperium over children: Plaut. Stick. 141, Pers. 343, Asin. 147, 509; 
Ter. Heaut. 233, Phorm. 232; over wife: Plaut. Asin. 87; Ter. Heaut. 
635; over slav€s: Amph. 262, Men. 1030, Capt. 306, True, 125; patris 
potestas '. Stick. S3, 69, Pers. 344; ius: Asin. 147; Ter. Hec. 243-4; 
maiestas: Liv. XXIII. 8. 3. 

57] 57 



28 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [58 

public are explainable on religious grounds, or as an 
anticipation of an ordinary legal penalty/ 

The adopted son held the same position as the son by 
birth. He had the same right of inheritance and stood in 
the same position of relationship to the family into which 
he had been taken. He ceased to be a member of the family 
into which he had been born, and had towards it no obliga- 
tions, such, for example, as the continuance of its religious 
rites. ^ In spite of this legal exemption from obligation, 
however, the son who had been given in adoption might 
very naturally continue to feel bound by ties of affection to 
his parents by birth. ^ 

Paternal authority was first exercised immediately after 
the birth of the child. The infant was laid at the father's 
feet, and if he took it up {tollere, suscipere), he acknowl- 
edged it as his. There is a suggestion that in case of the 

1 Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 3. Plaut. Stick. 72 : "aduorsari 
sine dedecore et scelere summo hau possumus" cf. Asin. 509, Stick. 53; 
Ter. And. 262. Plaut. Cas. 262-3 : " ^^io . . . opitulari unico " ; Ter. Hec. 
244: " patrio animo uictus." The right of exposure was limited from 
earliest times cf. Dion. II. 15, but by the law of the XII Tables every 
misformed child was put to death cf. Cic. de Leg. III. 8. 19. Abortions 
thrown into the sea as they were believed to be ill-omens : Liv. XXVII. 
37. 5-6, XXXI. 12. 8; persons implicated in a conspiracy against the 
state, who were put to death by their families : Dio XXXVII. 36 
(63 B. C). 

On the extent of the patria potestas cf. iSohm, op. cit., pp. 482-3, 
Girard, op. cit., p. 137, et seq., who says : " L'unite d'existence et 
d'autorite qu'elle implique dans la famille peut convenir a un fitat petit 
et pauvre, a une population respectueuse de ses traditions, depourvue 
d'esprit critique et d'esprit d'entreprise. Or, a Rome, ces conditions 
avaient disparu longtemps avant la fin de la Republique." 

*Liv. XLV. 40. 7, 41. 12; Plaut. Poen. 76-7: " eutnque adoptat sibi 
pro alio I eumque heredem fecit." Aul. Gell. V. 19. 15.: " animaduerti- 
mus in oratione P. Scipionis, . . . inter ea quae reprehendehat, quod 
contra tnaiorum instituta fierent, id etiam eum culpauisse, quod Alius 
adoptiuos patri adoptatori inter praemia patrum prodesset." 

sPolyb. XXXII. 12. 



CQ-j CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 59 

absence of the husband, the authority might be delegated 
to his wife/ If acknowledgment was refused, the child 
was exposed, that is, handed over to a slave who took it 
from the house and abandoned it. The future of a child 
thus exposed was uncertain — it might die, or if found and 
raised, would probably become a slave. Sometimes small 
articles of jewelry, crepundia, were left with the child, by 
which it might later be identified. Such objects were some- 
times called monumental 

The first week of the child's life was marked by certain 
domestic rites in honor of Juno Lucina. A sacrifice is 
mentioned in Plautus on the fifth day after birth, but this 
is possibly a reference to the Greek rite a(i<f>t.8p6fiui, which 
took place on the fifth day and was the occasion of the 
naming of the child, corresponding in this to the Roman 
dies lustriciis, the ninth day after birth for a boy, the eighth 
for a girl.^ 

Early in the life of the child — according to Ussing, on 
the first birthday (cf. Plautus, Rudens 1171) — the hullat 
was presented to the child by the father. This ornament 
was for a long time the mark of pueri ingenui, but at the 
time of the second Punic War the children of freedmen 
obtained the right to wear one of leather.* The bulla was 
a round medallion hung around the neck. Marquardt states 

^ Ter. And. 401 ; Plaut. Amph. 501 : " quod erit natum, toUito." 
' Plaut. Cist. 123-4, 166, 635-6, Cas. 40-6 ; Ter. Heaut. 614-5, 640 : 
" uel uti quaestum faceret uel utx ueniret palam " ; Plaut, Rud. 390 : 
"qui suos parentes noscere posset"; Ter. Eun. 753: " monutnenta". 

* Plaut. True. 476 : " ignem in aram, ut uenerem Lucinam " ; ibid. 
423-4 : " dis hodie sacruHcare pro puero uolo \ quinto die quod Heri 
oportet." 

* Ussing, Erziehung und Jugendunterricht (Berlin, 1885), p. 45 cf. 
Plaut. Rud. 1 171: "bulla aurea est pater quant dedit mi natali die." 
Macrob. Sat. I. 6. 8, et seq.; Liv. XXVI. 2>6. 5: " niio bullam", re- 
ferring to the bulla aurea of the children of senators. 



6o SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [60 

that it might also be in the shape of a heart, citing from 
Macrobius, Sat. I. 6. 17, the words cordis Hguram. The 
sentence of Macrobius taken as a whole, " cordis Hguram in 
bulla ante pectus adnecterent," does not seem to indicate 
this positively, as the usual expression to denote the mean- 
ing adopted by Marquardt would be bullam cordis iigura.^ 
In general boys wore the bulla until the assumption of the 
toga uirilis and girls until their marriage, but in one case in 
Plautus the bulla aurea of the girl, although preserved, was 
not worn but laid aside with the childish crepundia.^ 

The crepundia were little metal trinkets strung together 
and hung around the neck of the child. Plautus describes 
a typical collection of such miniature objects: a gold sword 
with the name of the father, a gold double-axe with the 
name of the mother, a silver sickle, two clasped hands, a pig. 
These crepundia were presented to the child by members of 
the household and by the household slaves. They served 
as a protection against fascinatio (Ussing points out in 
the " sicilicula argenteola" a resemblance in form to the 
crescent, and Plautus in the Epidicus mentions a lunula, 
evidently a half-moon shaped amulet, given to the child by 
one of the slaves of the household), and as a means of 
identification if the child were lost or stolen.^ They were 
further useful as a plaything — a kind of rattle. 

The old Roman custom of the nursing and care of the 
infant by the mother still continued in some cases.* In this 
period, however, we already find reference to the employ- 
ment of nurses, a custom which had become general by the 

* Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 100. 
*Plaut. Rud. 1154, cf. 1171. 

'Plaut. Mil. Glor. 1399: "quasi puero in collo pendant crepundia" 
cf. Rud. 1081; list of crepundia: ibid. 1154, et seq.; Ussing op. cit., 
p. 43 cf. ed. Plaut. Rud. 1156 n., Oxford ed. 1169 cf. Epid. 640. 

* Plut. Cat. maj. 20. 



6i] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 6l 

time of Cicero/ Marquardt states that the nurse was 
usually a woman of free status belonging to the family, 
but in some cases in Plautus and Terence the nurse {nutrex) 
is a slave (ancilla), and in others is evidently not from the 
household but summoned from outside." The name mater 
was sometimes given to the nutrex, apparently from affec- 
tion, and in the Mercator the ancilla refers to her young 
master as " erus atque alumnus." ^ Even when there was 
a nurse, the mother assisted in the care of the child.^ The 
child was rocked in a cradle (cunae).^ 

There is little information about the amusements and 
playthings of the children. The crepundia have already 
been mentioned. There were in addition various sports 
and pastimes, such as games of ball, walking on stilts 
(grallae), playing horse, and the like. Pets were more 
common than at present, especially dogs and various kinds 
of birds.^ 

^ Plaut. Men. 19-21 : " uti mater sua \ non internosse posset, quae 
mamtnam dabat, \ neque adeo mater ipsa quae illos peperat" cf. Cic 
Tusc. III. 1.2:" ut paene cum lacte nutricis errorem suxisse uideamur." 

2 Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 106 cf. nutrex a slave : 
Plaut. Merc. 509, 809, Poen. 1130 cf. Tac. Dial. 29: " natus infans dele- 
gafur Graeculae alicui ancillae," which would seem to indicate that in 
a later period as well the nutrex was not of free condition but a 
slave; nutrex summoned from outside: Plaut. True. 903; Ter. Hec. 
y2^: " immo uero abi, aliquam puero nutricem para." 

^ Mater: Plaut. Men. 19, Merc. 809. 

* Plaut. True. 902-3 : " matri autem quae puerum lauit \ opu' nutrici, 
lact' ut habeat." 

* Plaut. Pseud. 1177, Amph. 1107, True. 905. 

^ Plaut. Bacc. 428: pila; Poen. 530: " gralatorem gradu"; Asin. 700, 
et seq. : the master carries the slave on his back " ut consuetus es puer 
olim"; Capt. 1002-3: "quasi patriciis pueris aut monerulae \ aut anites 
aut coturnices dantur, quicum lusitent." Dogs : Plaut. Most. 849 ; Ter. 
And. 56-7; Plut. Aem. Paul. 6. 



62 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [62 

(b) GENERAL EDUCATION 

The period under discussion marks a new phase in the 
history of Roman education. Marquardt states that up 
to approximately 150 B. C. it is possible to " grasp the real 
originality of the old system of education which is half 
effaced later , . . the system of education confided with- 
out reserve to the family," ^ but it is evident that thei 
change had begun at a much earlier date. Wealthy families 
of the third century were already entrusting to Greek slaves 
a part in the education of their children. Before 240 B. C. 
Andronicus, who had been among the prisoners from 
Tarentum in 2^2 B. C, received his liberty from his master 
Livius because of his excellent qualities in instructing his 
master's children. Before the end of the century (after 
231 B. C.) the first school at Rome, according to Plutarch, 
was opened by Spurius Carvilius, a freedman.^ 

Ussing modifies the statement of Plutarch by the expla- 
nation that this Carvilius was doubtless the first teacher 
whose name was known, and considers that schools existed 
at Rome long before. He bases his conclusion (i) on 
the references in Livy III. 44. 6 (449 B. C. ), V. 27. i (394 
B. C.), and Dion. XI. 28; (2) and in his opinion more con- 

^ Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 97. 

'Suet, de Poetis, ed. Roth, p. 291. The first dramatic work of Livius 
was produced in 240 B. C, when he was apparently free. Plut. Q. R. 
59. Livius Andronicus also founded a school cf. Suet, de Gram, i, 
and it is uncertain whether this school or that of Carvilius was actu- 
ally the first. The exact date of the school of Carvilius cannot be 
determined, but as Sp. Carvilius received his divorce in 231 B. C. 
(Aul. Cell. IV. 3. I, 2 cf. XVn. 21. 44), probably it was in the third 
quarter of the century. If that of Carvilius was the first, Livius must 
have waited for some time after his emancipation. The Romans and 
the Greeks may very probably have had no absolute means of deter- 
mining the question, and in any case the schools date from practically 
the same time. 



53] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 63 

clusively, on the previous existence in Rome of written laws. 
Marquardt also uses these arguments as a contradiction 
of the hypothesis that there were no schools in Rome till 
Carvilius/ The existence of written laws, however, would 
not by itself prove the existence of ludi litter(wii, primary 
schools, as a knowledge of writing might be acquired in 
other ways. The references in Livy cannot be accepted 
as conclusive ; the chief source of information for this early 
period, the pontifical annals, give only a bare record of 
events. It is more probable that Livy, filling in the details, 
introduced in his mention of the ludus litterarum an institu- 
tion of a later period. 

By the early part of the second century B, C. the custom 
of employing educated slaves as instructors for the young 
had become common enough so that a slave or freedman 
opening such a school was sure of pupils. Some of the 
more conservative, however, still preferred to instruct their 
children directly, recognizing the undesirable features of 
the subordination of their sons toi men of a lower order. 
A person having such a slave in his household, whether 
or not he desired him as instructor for his own children, 
could profitably rent out the slave's services as instructor 
to the children of others." 

If the time of the father was occupied to a large extent 
by public affairs or business matters, the instruction which 
he was able to^ give toi his sons might be supplemented by 
lessons from slaves of the requisite learning.^ The early 

^Ussing, Erziehung u. Jugendunterricht, p. 100; Marquardt, Vie 
privee des R., vol. i, p. 109, n. 4, p. iii, n. i. 

" Plut. Cat. ntaj. 20 : Cato kept at his house a grammarian slave, 
Chilon, who instructed the children of other citizens for a salary re- 
ceived by his master, although Cato himself supervised the education 
of his own son ; cf. Plaut. Pseud. 446 : " hie mihi corrumpit filium." 

» Plut. A em. Paul. 6. 



64 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [64 

instruction of the child, therefore, might be given (i) at 
home directly by the parents, (2) at home by a slave of 
the household, (3) in a private school conducted by a slave 
or freedman. 

The education of the child began formally at the age of 
seven/ The essential elements of the instruction imparted 
to the child by the parents are summed up by Plautus in the 
words " parentex . . . litteras, iura^ leges docent", and 
this corresponds closely with the system followed by Cato." 
Children still learned by heart the XII Tables, a custom 
which fell into disuse in the time of Cicero.^ There was 
no systematic study of history, but the children were taught 
the illustrious deeds of the family to which they belonged, 
and in this way acquired some knowledge of the history 
of Rome.* 

The instruction in the primary schools was naturally 
along much the same lines as that given by the parents. 
That their chief task was to teach the alphabet and its uses 
— reading and writing — is shown by the names applied toi 
the school, hidus litter arius or litter arum, and to the in- 
structor, who was called litterator. Instruction was also) 

^ Plaut. Poen. 66 : " ptter . . . septuennis " ; Merc. 292, 303, Bacc. 440. 

* Plaut. Most. 126 cf. Plut. Cat. maj. 20. 

'Cic. de Leg. 11. 23. 59: " discebamus enim pueri XII ^ ut carmen 
necessarium, quas iam nemo discit." 

* Plut. Cat. maj. 20. Cicero Brut. XIX. 75, Tusc. I. 2. 3, speaks of 
songs which the Romans were accustomed to sing at banquets in praise 
of their famous ancestors, a practise which was dropped between Cato 
and Cicero. Doubtless there were such songs in praise of ancestors, 
but judging from other songs composed by the Romans, they were 
probably vague and general in character so that the same songs could 
be used to apply to anyone who had been brave. If in the time of 
Cato there had been any songs in praise of specific* families, they would 
not have been allowed to die out; cf. Varro, ap. Non .y. v. assa uoce, 
ed. Lindsay, vol. i, pp. 107-8. 



65] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 65 

given in rudimentary arithmetic. The lessons were done 
on wax tablets.^ 

During this period Roman education was broadened by 
the introduction of music and dancing. Although theseJ 
accomplishments were still regarded by the most conserva- 
tive as unbecoming, instruction in them was not limited to 
people of the lower class. Even citizens of high rank began 
to have their children so trained. Macrobius describes a 
dancing school of more than fifty boys and girls, and this 
school was probably not exceptional, as young girls of 
aristocratic family continued to receive similar instruction.^ 

In addition to his intellectual training the Roman youth 
was trained from early boyhood in bodily exercises : hurl- 
ing the javelin, boxing, swimming, and riding.^ The 
Romans, however, never regarded gymnastic exercises as 
seriously as did the Greeks. Scipio, while he was in Sicily, 
preparing his expedition against Carthage, entered the 
gymnasium of Syracuse in Greek dress and took part In 
the exercises of the palaestra; but many Romans were 
scandalized, and these actions were later brought up asi 
accusations against him.* Athletic games are mentioned 
for the first time in 186 B. C.^ 

With the development of schools, the custom of the! 

^ Plaut. Pers. 173 : " si in ludum iret, potuisset iam Hen ut probe 
litteras sciret" cf. ibid. 187: "si scis tute quot hodie habeas digitos in 
manu " ; Merc. 303 : " ludum litterarium " ; Bacc. 441 : " tabula " ; Suet. 
de Gram. 4: " litterator". 

*Macrob. III. 14. 4-7; Sallust Cat. 25: Sempronia, the mother of 
D. Brutus, is described as " litteris Graecis et Latinis docta, psallere 
et saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae, multa alia quae instru- 
menta luxuriae sunt." 

' Plut. Cat. maj. 20. 

* Cic. de Rep. IV. 4: " iuventutis uero exercitatio quam absurda in 
gymnasiis." Liv. XXIX. 19. 12, XXXVIII. 51. i. 

^ Liv. XXXIX. 23. 2 : " athletarum quoque certamen turn prima 
Romanis spectaculo fuit." 



66 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [66 

paedagogus was introduced, a slave who accompanied the 
child to class and was present at the lessons. Plautus speaks 
of the paedagogus continuing his office until the boy reached 
the age of twenty, but this is probably an exaggeration even 
for Greek education. The functions of the paedagogtis 
probably ceased at the assumption of the toga uvrUis.^ 

The change from the toga praetexta to the toga uirilis 
took place at the- age of seventeen. The youth might begin 
his military career before that time. In 216 B. C. and in 
212 B. C. the enrollment of boys under seventeen is men- 
tioned, and later the proposed legislation of C. Gracchus in- 
cluded the exemption of youths under seventeen from being 
drafted for the army.^ The lex Plaetoria apparently first 
established the distinction between minority and majority. 
This law protected minors up to the age of twenty-five, and 
gave them relief from any juristic act which they had con- 
cluded imder the influence of fraud. ^ 

. ^Paedagogus: Plaut. Bacc. 138, Pers. 447, Merc. 91; Ter. Phorm. 144. 
Plaut. Bacc. 422-3 : " nego tibi hoc annis uiginti fuisse primis copiae, \ 
digitum longe a paedagogo pedem ut ecferres aedibus." 

* Liv. XXII. 57. 9 : " iuniores ab septendecem et quosdam praetex- 
tatos scribunt"; ibid. XXV. 5. 8: "qui minores septendecem annis 
Sacramento dixissent Us perinde stipendia procederent, ac si septen- 
decem annorum aut maiores milites facti essent"; Polyb. X. 3: "He 
[Publius IScipio] was then ... eighteen years old and on his first cam- 
paign." Plut. C. Grace. 5, Flamin. i : " young men learned how to 
act as officers not by theory but by actual service in the field." 

* Plaut. Rud. 1380-2, Pseud. 303-4: "annorum lex me perdit quinaui- 
cenaria. \ metuont credere onines." The lex Plaetoria was passed before 
192 B. C, as that is the year in which the Pseudolus was presented. 
Kaxlowa, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 306-8, discusses the probable date of the 
law, and reaches the conclusion that it apparently does not mudi 
antedate 192 B. C iHe points out that with the incoming of Hellenic 
customs and the consequent change in social conditions at Rome, the 
inexperience of youths was more frequently taken advantage of, and 
moreover in a period of long continued warfare, it might often be the 
case that young men who had reached or even passed their twentieth 
birthday, and were veteran soldiers, in view of the long duration of 
their military activity, were still very inexperienced in civil affairs. 
Cf. Sohm. op. cit., pp. 294-5, Girard, op. cit., pp. 229-30. 



57] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 67 

After the assumption of the toga uirilis various fields of 
interest were open to the youth. He might carry on hisi 
studies with a view to practising at the bar; he might enter 
military life as a tribune; he might be entrusted with busi- 
ness enterprises and transactions as the representative of 
his father or independently/ Either as a direct gift from 
the father or through the profits of his business affairs the 
son might acquire a peculmm, private property,^ but legally 
this was held only with the consent of the father. 

(c) HIGHER EDUCATION CULTURAL STUDIES 

In some cases the youth might desire to carry his studies 
further as Roman education was gradually becoming more 
cultural. The translation of the Odyssey by Livius An- 
dronicus dates the beginning of Roman poetry. Both 
Livius and Ennius introduced into the general education 
the study and interpretation oif Greek literary works, and 
the reading and explanation of their own compositions, 
and their example was followed by others. The first 
grammarian to give real lessons was Crates of Mallos, the 
ambassador of Attains (between 160 and 150 B. C). 
Strabo calls Crates the foremost of the grammarians, the 
word being used in a large sense to mean literary critic. 
In this respect Crates continued the work of Ennius, and 
his teachings inspired wide imitation.^ 

*Plut. Aem. Paul. 2; Polyb. XXXII. 9: "I [Scipio Aemilianus] am 
considered . . . far removed from the true Roman character and ways, 
because I don't care for pleading in the law courts." Plut. Flamin. 
I. Plant. Most. 1016-7: "me apsente hie tecum Ulius \ negoti gessit"; 
Merc. II : "pater ad mercatum hinc me meus misit"; Bare. 249-50. 

* Plant. Capt. 19-20, Merc. 96-7 : the son, receiving a price above what 
he is to give to his father, says " peculium \ conHcio grande." 

'Suet, de Gram, i, 2: "primus igitur quantum opinamur studium 
grammaticae in urbem intulit Crates Mallotes . . . nostris exemplo fuit 
ad imitandum ", cf. Strabo I. 2. 24. 



68 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [68 

In the case of a family of sufficient wealth the whole 
education of the son might be conducted at home. This 
was true of Aemilius Paulus, who " provided his children 
with grammarians, sophists, and rhetors, surrounded them 
with sculptors, painters, hairdressers, and hunting-masters, 
all Greek ", and to complete their instruction asked the 
Athenians to send him the most esteemed philosopher of 
their city/ 

The same Aemilius Paulus, in bringing home the books 
of Perseus', established the first private library in Rome. 
Plautus indicates that in this period few if any libraries 
were at the disposal of a writer.^ At the beginning of the 
century history was still written in Greek. Both Q. Fabius 
Pictor and L. Cincius Alimentus used that language, and 
the first history to be written in Latin was the Origines of 
Cato. 

The knowledge of philosophy at Rome was diffused in 
various ways. Indirectly it was made known through the 
theatre, which familiarized the people with philosophic 
maxims and beliefs — for example Plautus by the wordsl 
" quos pol ego credo humanas querimotdas non tanti facere, 
quid uelint, quid non uelint" {Merc. 6-7), suggests the 
Epicurean theory which considered the gods sublimely in- 
different to the affairs of men, and Terence by the words 
" homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto " {Heaut 
yy), suggests the Stoic idea of universal brotherhood.^ 

1 Plut. Aem. Paul. 6. 

* Plut. Aem. Paul. 28; Plaut. Men. 247-8: " quin nos hinc domum \ 
redimus nisi si historiam scripturi sumus." 

^Cf. Pacuvius Ex Incert. Fab. XIV {Herm. 2), Ribb. Frag. Trag. 
pp. 124-6: 

" Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, 
Saxoque instare in globoso praedicant uolubilei. 
[Quia quo id saxum inpulerit fors, eo cadere Fortunam autumant.] 
Insanam autem esse aiunt, quia atrox incerta instabilisque sit: 



5o] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 69 

An effort was made to check the spread of the new belief si 
by the expulsion in 173 B. C. of the Epicureans Alcius and 
Philiscus, but professors of all kinds continued to come in, 
and in 161 B. C. the Senate was obliged to pass a new 
senatus consultum against them/ Such an edict was diffi- 
cult to enforce. It might be possible to expel some of the 
teachers, but the edict could not be carried out in the case 
of Greeks like Polybius who were living as preceptors or 
friends in the households of wealthy and influential fami- 
lies,^ or in the case of ambassadors. 

The ambassadors, besides their special mission, spoke in 
public on the studies in which they were interested. Examples 
are Astyamedes. the ambassador of the Rhodians, a rhetor 
who published his discourses ; ^ Crates of Mallos, the gram- 
marian sent by Attains II ; * the philosophers Carneades, 
Diogenes, and Critolaus, sent as an embassy by the Athe- 
nians in 155 B. C, who organized lectures while waiting 

Caecam ob earn rem esse iterant, quia nil cernant quo sese adplicet: 

Brutam, quia dignum atque indignum nequeat internoscere. 

Sunt autem alii philosophi, qui contra Fortunam negant 

Esse ullant, sed temeritate res regi omnis autumant. 

Id magis ueri simile esse usus re apse experiundo edocet: 

Velut Orestes mode fuit rex, factus mendicus modo." 

^ Athenaeus XII. 68. Aul. Gell. XV. 11 gives the substance of this 
decree. 

'^ Polyb. XXXII. 9: "the sons of L. Aemilius Paulus exerted all their 
influence with the praetor that Polybius might be allowed to remain 
in Rome. This was granted." 

5 Polyb. XXX. 4. 

* The exact date at which Crates of Mallos came to Rome is uncer- 
tain. Suet, de Gram. 2 says the year of the death of Ennius, but ac- 
cording to iCicero (Brut. XX. 78) Ennius died i6g B. C, and Attalus 
II did not become king until 159 B. C. The acceptance of this year 
as the date of the embassy is plausible, (i) as it would be natural for 
Attalus to send an embassy in the first year of his reign, (2) as this 
year places the date of the embassy as close as possible to that of the 
death of Ennius. 



70 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [70 

for their audience with the Senate. These lectures were 
very successful, and people crowded to hear them/ While 
Terence does not give philosophy a high rank as a serious 
study, classing it with the breeding of horses and of hunt- 
ing-dogs as a fad of youth, still prominent Romans were 
interested in the new teachings. When the Greek embassy 
was to appear before the Senate, an important citizen, C. 
Acilius, sought as an honor the privilege of serving as in- 
terpreter. Cato strongly opposed this teaching of Greek 
philosophy at Rome, but in doing so, it was not so much 
the theories themselves which he objected to, as the intro- 
duction into Rome of an interest in rhetoric and philosophy, 
studies which he regarded with disfavor. It was largely 
due to his efforts that Carneades and his colleagues were 
finally sent back to Greece.^ 

The Athenian embassy represented three different schools 
of philosophy — " Carneades ex Acidemia, Diogenes Stoicus, 
Critolaus Peripateticus", but the teachings of Carneades 
were especially popular. The success of his doctrines at 
Rome, moreover, was not merely temporary. Clitomachus, 
the friend and successor of Carneades, dedicated two books 
to Lucilius and to the consul L. Censorinus.^ The Stoics 
at Rome were especially represented by Panaetius, the pupil 
of Crates of Mallos. The success of the Stoic school isl 
marked in the circle of Scipio Aem'ilianus. Laelius in par- 
ticular followed the lessons of Diogenes, the colleague of 

^ Gell. VI (VII). 14: the Athenian embassy was sent to reduce the 
fine imposed after the pillage of Oropus; Plut. Cat. maj. 22; Cic. 
de Orat. II. 37. i55- 
' Ter. And. 55-7 : " quod plerique omnes faciunt adulescentuli 

ut ammum ad aliquod studium adtungant, out equos 
alere aut canes ad uenandum out ad philosophos." 
For attitude of Cato towards rhetoric and philosophy cf. Plut. Cat. maj, 
23, Cato Incert. Lib. Reliq. 19, ed. Jord. p. 87. 
^Cic. Acad. IV. 32. 102. 



71 ] CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 7 1 

Carneades, and then the lessons of Panaetius. With 
Panaetius stoicism no longer emphasized exclusively the 
speculative side, but occupied itself as well with the practical 
organization of peoples and cities/ The role of philosophy 
in politics was growing and an influence in the reforms of 
Tiberius Gracchus is attributed by ancient writers tO' the 
rhetor Diophanes of Mytilene and to the philosopher 
Blossius of Cumae.^ 

The scientific study of the period was mainly concernedi 
with the improvement of the calendar, which did not cor- 
respond exactly to the solar year. In 192 B. C. the consul 
M'. Acilius Glabrio is said to have proposed the institution 
of intercalary days. The pontiffs who had charge of reg^l- 
lating the intercalations, abused the privilege, however, by 
employing it to lengthen or shorten the term of magistrates.^ 
In 188 B. C. M. Fulvius Nobilior posted on his temple of 
Hercules and the Muses a list of the months and days of 
the year with explanations about each.* This was done 
evidently in order to familiarize the people with the facts. 

There was also an attempt to determine more exactly the 
hours of the day. In 263 B. C. a sun-dial brought from 
Sicily by M, Valerius Messala, had been set up in the forum, 
but as this was regulated for Catana, it was not entirely 

^ Strabo XIV. 5. 16; Cic. de Fin. II. 8. 24: "nee ille, qui Diogenem 
Stoicum adulescens, post autem Panaetium audierat, Laelius " ; de Leg. 
III. 6. 14: " etiam a Stoicis ista tractata sunt? Non sane nisi ab eo, 
quern modo nominaui, et posiea a magno homine et in primis erudito, 
Panaetio, nam ueteres uerbo tenus acute illi quidem, sed non ad hunc 
usuni popularem atque civilem, de re publico disserebant." 

' Plut. Tib. Grace. 8. 

* Macrob. Sat. I. 13. 21 ; Censor, de Die Natal. XX. 6, 7: " pontificibus 
datum negotium eorumque arbitrio itttercalandi ratio, permissa. sed 
horum plerique ob odium uel gratiam, quo quis magistratu citius abiret 
diutiusue fungeretur . . . plus minusue ex libidine intercalando rem sib* 
ad corrigendum mandatam ultro quod deprauarunt." 

* Macrob. Sat. I. 12. 16. 



72 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [72 

correct. In 164 B. C, Q. Marcius Philippus, the censor, 
erected one regulated for Roman use. To some people, 
however, the new method of telling time was not entirely 
desirable. Plautus puts in the mouth of one of his charac- 
ters an amusing diatribe against the recent innovation, be- 
ginning : " May the gods destroy the man who first dis- 
covered hours, and even more, the man who first set up al 
sun-dial here and divided the day into little bits of pieces 
for poor me." In 159 B. C. Scipioi Nasica introduced the 
first water-clock.^ 

The study of astronomy had progressed so that many 
Romans were able tO' comprehend the scientific explanation 
of natural phenomena. In 168 B. C, before the battle of 
Pydna, when an eclipse of the moon terrified the soldiers, 
C. Sulpicius Gallus, the mihtary tribune of Aemilius Paulus, 
the next day explained the occurrence to them, giving them 
a brief description of the planetary system. According toi 
Livy he not only explained the phenomenon but also an- 
nounced the hour beforehand.^ While it is improbable that 
he would be able to make such definite calculations, still it 
is important that a Roman officer of the time could make 
such an explanation. 

^Plin. H. N. VII. 60 (60). 213-5; Plaut. frag. Boeotia, cf. Fowler, 
Social Life at Rome (New York, 1910), p. 265. 

*Cic. de Rep. I. 15. 22; Val. Max. VIII. 11. i; Liv. XLIV. 27- 5, 6: 
" pronuntiauit node proxima, ne quis id pro portento acciperet, ah hora 
secunda usque ad quartam horam noctis lunam defecturam esse, id 
quia naturali ordine statis temporibus Hat, et sciri ante et praedici posse." 



CHAPTER IV 
Slaves 

The number of slaves in Italy increased rapidly in this 
period as the sources of supply became more abundant. 
Walion attempts to estimate the slave population of Italy at 
the beginning of the second Punic War and then again at 
the time of the first consulship of Pompey. The total popu- 
lation of Italy is first estimated on the basis of the grain 
supply, and from this is deducted the number of the inhabi- 
tants who were included in the census lists with allowance 
for the number of freedmen and foreigners. While it is 
recognized that the result is necessarily inexact, he co;i- 
cludes that the beginning of the second Punic War the ser- 
vile population was still far from equaling the free popula- 
tion, whereas at the time of the first consulship of Pompey 
" a la diminution du nombre des hommes libres a corre- 
spondu, generalement, une augmentation des esclaves et que 
ce dernier nombre, plus f aible que I'autre au commencement 
de la seconde guerre punique, I'a maintenant au moins 
egale." ^ 

There are indications that from Cato the Censor to Cato 
of Utica the number of domestic slaves, at least in the 
wealthier and more aristocratic families, had become several 
times as great. Valerius Maximus, after comparing the 
three slaves of the former with the twelve attendants of the 
latter under similar circumstances, significantly adds, " nu- 

1 Walion, Histoire de I'esclavage, vol. ii, p. 70, et seq., p. 157. 
7i\ 73 



74 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [74 

mero plures qttam superior, temporum div^rsis moribus 
pauciores." ^ Such moderation in the number of slaves was 
not exceptional in the time of the elder Cato. Scipio Aemi- 
lianus when he was commissioned by the Senate " to settle 
the kingdoms throughout the world " only took five slaves." 
The chief reason for the increase in the number of slaves 
during this period was the foreign wars in which large 
numbers were included in the booty. Some of these cap- 
tives were brought to Rome for the triumph, and others 
were sold on the spot by the quaestors. The sale was called 
sub hasta or sub corotm iienire.^ It is striking in this con- 
nection to note Polybius' description of the crowds of tm- 
armed citizens, " more numerous than the soldiers them- 
selves," who followed the camp of Flaminius in hopes of 
booty, carrying chains and fetters with them in readiness 
for the slaves they hoped to obtain.^ Besides the captives 
in war, however, there were also other sources from which 
slaves were acquired. Kidnapping and piracy were carried 
on extensively, and many of the slaves offered for sale in 
the markets were obtained in this way.^ In addition to 
slaves acquired by purchase there were the slaves born in 
the household and known as uernae. These persons grew 
up in the family with the children of the master and were 
nursed by a nutrex or sometimes even by the mistress her- 
self.' 

» 

»Val. Max. IV. 3. n, 12. 

« Polyb. Frag. XXIX. 

»Liv. XXIII. 37. 12, XXXIX. 42. I, XLI. II. 8; Cato de re tnilitari 
2, ed. Jord. p. 80: " ut populus sua opera potius ob rem bene gestam 
coronatus suppUcatum eat, quam re male gesta coronatus ueneat"; 
Plaut. Capt. 34: "emit hose' de praeda umbos de quaestoribus" cf. 
ibid. Ill, 453, Epid. 43^4, 210-1. 

* Polyb. III. 82. 

' Plaut. Cure. 644, et seq., Men. 30-1, Capt. 8-10, Poen. 897. 

® Plut. Cat. maj. 20 : the wife of Cato nursed the children of the 



75] ^^^^^^ 75 

Slave-dealing, although recognized as a regular busi- 
ness, was regarded with disfavor as a quaesttis inhonestus. 
Wallon points out that as the Greeks had the advantage of 
the Romans in long experience, they therefore were more 
prominent in the slave traffic in Rome than the Romans 
themselves, but it is evident that Romans of high rank did 
not disdain to profit by it indirectly. Cato, for example, 
provided his slaves with money with which to buy young 
slaves who were to be trained for a year and then sold at a 
profit/ The traffic in slaves was carried on in public mar- 
kets, and the slave to be sold was put up on a stone and 
proclaimed by the herald. There was a fixed spot for slave 
dealing near the temple of Castor. In this period there was 
no general tax on the sale of slaves, although one was later 
established under Augustus. Cato, however, imposed a tax 
on slaves under twenty who were sold for more than a cer- 
tain price.^ 

The prices of slaves varied according to circumstances. 

domestic slaves; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 698: "quid? nutrici non missuru's 
quicquam quae uernas alit? " 

In ancient law every execution was personal and resulted in the 
bondage of the debtor, so that the creditor might either sell him 
(trans Tiberim) or kill him. The extreme provisions of the law were 
no longer used, but bondage for debt continued to be the civil law 
method of execution par excellence. The debtor who was unable to 
pay, was brought before the praetor and addicted to his creditor. He 
was thus placed by execution in somewhat the position of a slave 
in regard to his creditor, and addiction is frequently incorrectly given 
as one of the sources of slaves at Rome. Cf. iSohm, op. cit., p. 286, 
et seq. Plaut. Men. 96-7 : " nam ego ad Menaechmum hunc <nM«c>' 
eo quo iam diu | sum iudicatus" ; Poen. 1341, 1361 : " quin egomet tibi 
me addico, quid praetore opust"; Ter. Phorm. 334; Liv. XXIII. 14. 3: 
" quique pecuniae iudicati in uinculis essent." 

1 Plaut. Capt. 98-9; Wallon, Histoire de I'esclavage, vol. ii, p. 48; 
Plut. Cat. ma J. 21. 

2 Plaut. Bac£. 815-6: " atque in eopse astas lapide, ut praeco praedicat \ 
...quis me uendit?" Cure. 481; Liv. XXXIX. 44. 3. 



y^i SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [76 

In the comedies the prices are given in Greek money, but 
there was a close relation between the Greek drachma and 
the Roman denarius, and in later times the term "drachma'* 
came to be applied to the denarius/ For purposes of com- 
parison, therefore, the drachma may be recognized as ap- 
proximately equal to the denarius. According to Cato a 
fair price for a first-class laboring slave was 1500 denarii 
{c. $270) but ordinary unskilled labor probably brought 
much less. In 194 B. C. the prisoners who had been sold in 
Greece by Hannibal were bought back at the low price of 
500 denarii. The prices of Greek markets corresponded 
roughly to those of the Roman markets during this period 
in consequence of the closer relations which were estab- 
lished between the two people. After the battle of Cannae, 
Hannibal had offered to ransom his captives at 500 denarii 
for a horseman, 300 for a foot-soldier, and 100 for a slave, 
but that this price was below the usual value of slaves is 
indicated by the statement of Livy that the Senate pur- 
chased as soldiers {miles) eight thousand slaves " though 
they had the power of redeeming the captives at less ex- 
pense." An even lower price was agreed upon by Fabius as 
a ransom — 250 drachma.^ 

A philosopher is estimated in Plautus at a talent {Capt. 
274) ; an intelligent able-bodied young slave of superior 
quality is estimated at 20 minae {Capt. 364) ; and for young 
slave-boys of high personal attractions extravagant sums 
were paid in spite of the efforts of the censors to check this 

^Hultsch, Griechische und Romische Metrologie (Berlin, 1882), p. 
149, states that in later times in Rome instead of the drachma " wurde 
. . . der D'enar gebraucht und der Name Drachma auf diesen iiber- 
tragen." 

''Plut. Cat. maj. 4; Liv. XXXIV. 50. 6, XXII. 57. 11-12, 58. 4; Plut. 
Fab. 7. -~ -' 



77] SLAVES J J 

growing tendency/ A child of four years sold for 6 minae 
(Capt. 8,974) ; two children and their nurse at 18 minae 
{Poen. 897). Young girls varied according to their accom- 
plishments and personal attractions. A fair price was ap- 
parently 20 minae {Pseud. 52, Merc. 429; Ter, Ad. 191), 
but as low as 600 nummi is mentioned {Pers. 36), and as 
high as 30 minae {Merc. 432, Rud. 45, Most. 300, Cure. 
63), 40 minae {Epid. 52), 50 minae {Merc. 440), or even 
60 minae {Cure. 64, Pers. 665), 

For common work newly imported slaves were preferred 
rather than those who had been in service for a long time. 
All nationalities were represented, and the names of slaves 
in the comedies frequently indicate the country from which 
they come, as Lydus, Libanus, Cilix, Syrus. The Syrians 
were the most numerous and were considered particularly 
fitted for slavery by innate qualities of submission and en- 
durance. They were already employed especially for the 
humbler duties of the household, and in Plautus {Merc. 
413-6) the head of the house promises to obtain " a Syrian 
or an Egyptian, someone to grind corn, to cook, to spin," 
and to perform other laborious tasks. ^ 

In theory the slaves were not badly treated ; Cato worked, 
ate, and drank with his slaves, and in any case it was to the 
self-interest of the master to keep them in good condition. 

lUv. XXXIX. 44, 3 cf. Polyb. XXXII. il. 

Ramsay, Most. 241, et seq., in the article on " Terms Employed 
With iReference to Money ", gives an explanation of money in Plautus, 
saying : " In the works of the Latin dramatists all computations in 
Greek money must be referred to the Attic standard and wherever 
moderate sums are named we shall not commit any grave error if 
we consider the value of the Attic drachma — Qd. sterling." 

2 Ter. And. 457: " quid nam hoc est rei? quid hie uolt ueterator sibi?" 
Plaut. Baec. : Lydus ; Asin. : Libanus ; Fab. Inc. Frag. 149 : Cilix ; Merc., 
True.: Syra; Ter. Heaut.: Phrygia, Syrus cf. Ad.: iSyrus; And.: 
Lesbia, Mysis. Plaut. Trin. 542 : " turn autem Surorum, genu' quod 
patientissutnumst." 



78 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [78 

A fixed allowance of com which they themselves ground, 
olives, salt-fish, oil, and salt was given to each slave, and a 
small ration of wine. The distribution was made monthly 
on the Kalends. Cato carefully estimates 4 measures of 
com during the winter, 5 from the beginning of work in 
the vineyard until the ripening of the figs, and then 4 again. 
The uilicus, the uilica, and the opilio (shepherd), however, 
were to have only 3.^ The allowance was regulated accord- 
ing to the amount of labor performed, and was raised at the 
festivals of the Compitalia and the Saturnalia, the latter of 
which had recently been restored to especial honor in the 
midst of the reverses of the second Punic War in 217 B. C.^ 
In Plautus (Stick. 6901) there is a description of such 
festal rations which includes nuts, beans, figs, olives, lupine, 
and small pastry. It is probable that sometimes, at least in 
the city, an equivalent in money was given to the slave. 

Clothing and shoes were furnished by the master, al- 
though these might be supplemented by presents or pur- 
chases from the peculium of the slave. For the street the 
slave wore a campestre or tunica in place of the toga. 
Other articles of clothing were the cento, a garment made of 
several bits or pieces sewed together, the tegillum, a kind of 
hood, the saga, a coarse woolen mantle, and the sculponeae, 
heavy wooden shoes. ^ These heavy wooden shoes were 

^ Plut. Cat. maj. 3. Plaut. Stick. 60 : " uos meministis quotcalendis 
petere demensutn cibum" cf. Men. 14-15, Trin. 944; Ter. Phorm. 43-4 
cf. Don. ad Ter. Phorm. I. i. 9; Cato R. R. LVI-LVIII, CIV; Plaut. 
Rud. 936-7 : " hie rex cum aceto pransurust | et sale sine bono pul- 
mento"; Cato R. R. II. 4; "cum serui aegrotarint, cibaria tanta dart 
non oportuisse." 

«Uv. XXII. I, 20. 

*Cato R. R. LIX: " uestimenta familiae. tunicam P. HIS: saga 
alternis annis: quotiens cuique tunicam aut sagum dabis, prius ueterem 
accipito, unde centones flant: sculponeas bonas alternis annis dare 
oportet " ; ibid. II. 3, X. s ; Plaut. Cc^s. 495 : " soleas . . . qui quaeso potins 
quam sculponeas"; Rud. 576: "tegillum" ; Pseud. 1 187-8: " mea quidem 
haec habeo omnia, \ meo peculio empta". 



79] SLAVES 79 

worn by both male and female slaves, and in Plautus {Cos. 
708-12) the lighter and more elegant soleae are promised 
to a female slave only as a high reward — " I will give you 
sandals if you accomplish this, and a gold ring for your 
finger, and many presents." 

The slave was not only permitted but encouraged to 
amass a personal fortune or pecidium. The possession of 
such a peculium was regarded as a proof of industry and 
capacity, whereas a slave without a peculium was regarded 
as " nili at que inprobus." It was furthermore to the ad- 
vantage of the slave to acquire capital with which he could 
buy his freedom/ Various means were open for securing a 
peculium: ( i ) the slave could save a part from his monthly 
allowance; (2) if he was entrusted with the independent 
carrying-on of some business for his master, he might be 
given a share in the returns; (3) if a shepherd, he was per- 
mitted to raise some of the sheep for his own profit (pecu- 
liarem) .^ The peculium, of course could not be disposed of 
without the consent of the master, and moreover the slave 
had to make gifts on certain occasions such as the wedding 
of his master's son, the birth of a child, its birthday, et 
cetera.^ 

Legal marriage did not exist for slaves,* but unions might 
be contracted with the consent of the master. Cato de- 
manded a fixed sum from slaves desiring to contract such a 

^Plaut. Rud. 112: " peculiosum esse addecet seruom et probutn"; 
Asin. 498: " frugi tatnen sum, nee potest peculium enumerari" ; Cos. 
257-8 : " armigero nili atque inprobo, | quoi homini hodie peculi nummus 
non est plumbeus" cf. Aul. 466, Asin. 1277, Capt. 1028, Stick. 751, Most. 
253, 863. Rud. g2g: "pro capite argentum ut sim liber" cf. Capt. 121. 

* Ter. Phorm. 35, et seq. ; Plaut. Asin. 540-1 : " etiam opilio qui pascet 
. . . alienas ouis, | aliquam habet peculiarem qui spem soletur suam " ; 
Merc. 524-5, Asin. 441-3; Plut. Cat, maj. 21. 

» Ter. Phorm. 35, et seq. 

* Plaut. Cas. 68-70. 



8o SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [go 

union, but Plutarch suggests that this practise was not gen- 
eral/ These unions were frequently recognized as equiv- 
alent to marriage, and the same terms such as nuptum and 
tixor, were used in referring to them, which were applied in 
the case of people of free condition to legal forms from 
which slaves were excluded. Frequently the marriage of 
certain slaves was to the interest of the master, as that of 
the uilicus and the idlica advised by Cato.^ 

Private slaves were divided into the familia urbana and 
the familia rustica. The familia rustica had a harder life, 
and to send a slave to the villa was often regarded as a 
punishment. Some, however, might prefer to work there, 
as the farm offered them greater freedom than was possible 
in the restrictions of city life.^ At the head of the familia 
rustica was the uilicus; only the presence of the master 
limited his power, and the farm was his " praefectura " 
(Plant. Cos. 99), his " prouincia" (ibid, 103). He super- 
intended all matters pertaining to the work of the farm, 
including the buying and selling, the distribution of food 
and clothing to the slaves under him, the settlement of dis- 
putes, the hiring of outside help, etc. He was supposed 
to be expert in all kinds of farm work, and to help in it to 
some extent without exhausting himself — in short, in the 
words of Cato, the uilicus should be " the first to rise in the 
morning and the last to retire at night." * 

* Plut. Cat. maj. 21, 

'^ Plaut. Cos. 254: "super ancilla Casina, ut detur nuptum nostra 
uilico " ; Ter. Ad. 973 : " Phrygiam . . . uxorem meant ". Cato R. R. 
CXLIII. I. 

' Plaut. Most. 4: "ego pol te ruri, si uiuam, ulciscar probe" cf. 
Ter. Phorm. 249-50 : " molendum usque in pistrino, uapulandum, ha- 
bendae compedes, | opus ruri faciendum " ; Plaut. Most. 6-y : " quid 
tibi, malum, hie ante aedis clamitatiost? \ an ruri censes te esse? " 

*Cato R. R. V, CXLII; Plaut. Cos. 99-110; Pomponius Ergastulum 
I, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 232 : " longe ab urbe uilicari, quo erus rarenter 
uenit, I [Id]non uilicari, sed dominari est mea sententia." 



Si] slaves 8i 

Under him were the ploughmen (bubulci), the ass-driver 
(asinaritis) , the shepherd (opilio), the swineherd {subul- 
cus), and the ordinary workmen (operarii). The number 
varied according to the size of the estate; for one of 240 
iugera with oHves and sheep Cato estimates 5 ordinary- 
workmen, 3 ploughmen, i ass-driver, i swineherd, and i 
shepherd; for one of 100 iugera with a vineyard 10 work- 
men, I ploughman, i ass-driver, i swineherd, and one man 
to take care of the willow trees (salictarius) . In harvest 
season hired hands were taken on, but the uilicus saw to it 
that these were not kept any longer than was necessary.'^ 
Some of the slaves on the farm were compelled to work in 
fetters (compediti), but this did not apply to the large 
number of them as Cato makes an exception of compediti 
in the distribution of food and provides them with bread 
instead of com to be ground. Probably only those worked 
in chains who had committed some offense or who it was 
feared might attempt to escape. Besides the regular work 
of the farm the country slaves were liable to be called on 
for public work such as the construction of roads.' 

The work inside the house was attended to by the uilica, 
who, as has been said, it M'^as usually considered advisable 
should be married to the uilicus. She attended to the clean- 
ing, the cooking, and the poultry yard, and Cato bids her 
see to it that there is a plentiful supply of eggs and chickens. 
Wallon considers that while the uilica is the only woman 
mentioned in the familia rustica enumerated by Cato, the 
restraint placed on unions between slaves which is men- 
tioned by Plutarch, proves that there were other slave 
women in the villa. The statement of Plutarch, however, is 

^Cato R. R. X, XI, V. 4: " operarium, mercennarium, politorem 
diutius eundem ne habeat die." 

2 Ibid. 'LVI ; Plaut. Most. 19 : " augebis ruri numerum, genu' ferratile." 
Cato R. R. II. 4 : " uiam publicam muttiri." 



82 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [82 

not applied definitely to the familia rustica, but seems rather 
to refer to the urban household/ 

The slaves in the familia urbana were in closer touch 
with the master, and their condition was considered more 
desirable. With the increase in the number of slaves their 
duties and occupations were highly specialized, and the 
slave who' was delegated to some special office resented as 
an infringement any call upon him for services along other 
lines. For example, in Plautus (Cas. 461-2) a slave com- 
plains disgustedly that he, who' had been an aduersitor, his 
master wished tO' make a mere door-keeper. 

The slaves may be divided into certain groups. First 
were the domestic servants : of these the most important 
was the atriensis, who in this period managed the entire 
household, attending to money matters such as purchases 
and sales and superintending the provisions.^ That he was 
often harsh in his maintenance of discipline is suggested in 
Plautus (Asin. 371-2) where Leonida with the desire of 
the true artist to make his impersonation of the atriensis as 
realistic as possible, stipulates to his fellow-slave: " If pres- 
ently when I am pretending to be Saurea, I should break 
your jaw with my fist, don't get angry over it." 

Under the atriensis were the porter (ianifor or ianitrix), 
the steward {cellarius) , the slave who* laid up the provisions 
(condus), the slave who distributed the provisions (pro- 

^Cato R. R. CXLIII, cf. Plaut. Merc. 508-9; Ter. Ad. 846, et seq. on. 
the duties of a female slave in the country: 

" atque ibi fauillae plena, fiimi ac pollinis 
coquendo sit faxo et molendo; praeter haec 
meridie ipso faciam tit stipulam conligat; 
tarn exjcoctam reddam atque atram quam carbost." 
Wallon, Histoire de I'esclavage, vol. ii, p. 103 cf. Plut. Cat. maj. 21. 

^ Plaut. Asin. 347, 368-9, Pseud. 608-9 '■ " condus, promus sum, pro- 
curator peni. I quasi te dicas atriensem " cf. Poen. 1283 : " ipse abiit 
foras, me reliquit pro atriensi in aedibus." 



83] SLAVES 83 

mus), his assistant {suhpromus) , the slave who arranged 
the couches (lectisterniator) , the cook {co quits), the weaver 
{textrix), and various others to satisfy the increasing needs 
of the household/ The familia also included the personal 
slaves, as the nurse (nutrex), the teacher (lifterator), the 
pedagogue {paedagogus), the invitation-bearer (calator), 
the attendants or lackeys (pedisequus, pediseqiia) , the slaves 
who went tO' meet the master (aduersitores) , the garment- 
folder (uestipica), the fan-bearer (Habellifera) , the keeper 
of the jewel-casket {cistellatrixy, the sandal-bearer (sandOr- 
ligerida), et cetera. There were also slaves skilled in music 
in the familia, although professional entertainers might be 
hired for an occasion.^ Naturally this division of labor 
was not carried so far in every household, even those of the 
wealthy, but a single slave might be entrusted with several 
functions. 

In addition to the house slaves and the farm slaves there 
were the industrial slaves, serui usurarii, who' practised dif- 

^ Plaut. Asin. 390-1: "ianitor"; Cure. 76: "ianitrix." Mil. Glor. 
824, Capt. 895 : " cellarius." Pseud. 608, Mil. Glor. 837, 846, Poen. 716. 
Pseud. 162 : " lectisterniator." The coquus is taken up more in detail 
in a separate paragraph. Weaving was one of the principal occupa- 
tions of female slaves cf. Plant. Merc. 518-20: 

" possin tu, sei ussus uenerit, subtemen tenue neref 
possum, sei tenue scis, scio te uberius posse nere. 
de laniUcio neminem metuo, una aetate quae sit." 
Men. 796-7. 

*The nutrex, the litterator, and the paedagogus are dealt with more 
fully in the chapter on "Children". Plaut. Rud. 335: "calator". 
Asin. 183, Aul. 807 ; Ter. And. 123 : " pedisequa " ; Plaut. Poen. 41 : 
" pedisequi ". Stick. 607, Men. 437, 445, Most. 938, 947 cf. Don. ad Ter. 
Ad. I. I. 2: "aduersitores". Plaut. Trin. 253-4: " uestipica .. .AabelU- 
ferae, sandaligerulae, \ cantrices, cistellatrices, nuntii, renuntii " ; Epid. 
411, 372: " fidicinam, nuntnio conducta quae sit"; Aul. 280-1; Liv. 
XXXIX. 6. 8. 



84 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [84 

ferent trades for their master's profit. Examples are the 
tonstrix, the tihicina, the fidicina, and various artisans/ 

A slave who deserves special mention because of his 
rapid increase of importance in this period is the cook 
{coquiis). The regular daily cooking was done by a com- 
mon slave of the household, but for special occasions such 
as weddings, birthdays, large dinners and the like an expert 
cook was hired. In all of the plays of Plautus these cooks 
are apparently slaves, whereas in Greek comedy the pro- 
fessional cook is never represented as a slave except in one 
play of Posidippus, and Rankin thinks that even this cook 
was not an actual slave but an apprentice to a higher fidyeip<K. 
A hired cook brought with him assistant cooks and his 
own cooking utensils. He received usually one drachma 
for his services, but especially expert cooks charged twice 
this amount. Sometimes in addition to their regular pay 
they received more or less generous " tips." These profes- 
sional cooks took their stand in the macellum or provision- 
market.^ 

* Plaut. Cure, z^z ', True. 405-6 : " tonstricem Suram . . . nostram " cf. 
y77 where Callicles inflicts on her the punishment of a slave and 
Phronesium claims her as her property, " tonstrieem me.am " (856) ; 
Aul. 280-1, Epid. 372; Asin. 441, et seq. 

*Liv. XXXIX. 6. 9 (187 B. C) : "turn eoquus, uilissimum antiquis 
mancipium et aestimatione et usu, in pretio esse, et, quod ministerium 
fuerat, ars haberi coepta"; Plaut. Merc. 416; Ter. And. 31; cooks 
hired for special occasions cf. Plaut. Aul. 280, Merc. 697, Pseud. 798, 
et seq.; Aul. 309 indicates the cooks are slaves as they speak of pur- 
chasing their freedom cf. 346, et seq., 409, Men. 275 virhere the treat- 
ment they receive is such as would be accorded to slaves. Rankin, 
Role of the Mdyeipoi in the Life of the Ancient Greeks (Chicago, 1907), 
p. 20. Plaut. Cas. 720, et seq., Pseud. 865, et seq., Aul. 398-9, 409, 553, 
Merc. 741, 779, et seq.; Aul. 445-6: "nisi reddi \ mihi uasa iubes" cf. 
Merc. 781. Ibid. 777: " drachmam dato " cf. Pseud. 808-9: " illi drachu- 
inissent miseri: me nemo potest | niinoris quisquam nummo ut surgam 
abigere"; Aul. 448. Ihid. 309-10: " censen talentum magnum exorari 
pote I ab istoc sene, ut det qui Hamus liberi"} Ibid. 280-1, Pseud. 790: 



85] • SLAVES 85 

Up to now the marketing had been done by some 
hanger-on of the household or even more simply by the 
master himself, but this was now being superseded. In the 
Menaechmi, the only instance in Plautus of a household 
cook who is regarded as competent to prepare a large ban- 
quet, the cook himself does the marketing, and in some 
wealthy families the growing importance of the culinary art 
had already called forth the opsonator. It was the duty of 
the opsonator tO' purchase the provisions, and his office be- 
came an important feature of the imperial households/ 

Besides the private slaves there were also' the public slaves 
of the state. These slaves were employed in various ways : 
in the service of the tribimes, as clerks in public offices, for 
service in the navy, for the menial work of sacrifices. Livy 
mentions uigiliae (watchmen), but without stating whether 
they were slaves or free." 

The punishment of slaves was not regulated by law. It 
was left arbitrarily to the master, and in almost every 
household of any size there was a lorarius, the executor of 
punishment for slaves. Often for comparatively light 
offenses there was a severe penalty. For example, when 
Cato invited friends to dinner, if the meal had been in any 
way badly prepared or served, the guilty slave was whipped.* 

"forum coguinum" which Richter, Miiller's Handbuch (Munich, 
1901), vol. iii, sec. ii, p. 310, "Topographic von Rom," thinks is merely 
another term for macellum ; Ten Eun. 255 : tnacellum cf. Plin. H. H. 
XVIII. II (28). 108. 

* Plant. Aul. 280: " postquam opsonauit erus"; Capt. 474 cf. Ter. 
Eun. 2'55, et seq. where the parasite does the marketing. Plant. Mil. 
Glor. 66y : " opsonatoretn optumum." 

'Plant. Capt. 334: " priuatam seruitutem seruit illi an publicam" ; 
Liv. XXXVIII. 51. 12, XLIII. 16. 13, XL. 29. 14; Polyb. X. 17: "after 
the assault of New Carthage the craftsmen were made temporarily 
public slaves of Rome . . . some were drafted into the navy." Liv. 
XXXIX. 14. 10. 

•Plant. Capt. II. i: lorarii cf. Ter. And.; Plut. Cat maj. 25. 



86 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [86 

For very slight offenses the slave was condemned to wear 
the furca, a fork-shaped wooden yoke with the prongs 
bound to his hands. This was not especially painful, but 
was exacted " more as a disgrace than as an actual punish- 
ment " (Don. ad Ter. And. III. 5. 12). The most common 
form of punishment was whipping, and three kinds of in- 
struments are mentioned according to the severity of the 
flogging to be administered: (i) rods or switches {uirgae, 
ulmei), (2) leather whips (lora), (3) whips of knotted 
cords combined with strips of metal {Uagra).^ 

Slaves who had been guilty of a more serious offense or 
whom it was thought might attempt to escape, were kept in 
chains. Various kinds of fetters were used and of varying 
weights ranging from the lighter chains {catenae singu- 
lares) to the very heavy ones for the dangerous slaves. 
There were shackles for different parts of the body: the 
compedes and pedicae for the feet, manicae for the hands, 
boiae for the neck, and leather thongs (neruae). Other 
forms of punishment were : ( i ) to shut the slave up in the 
puteus, an underground dungeon, where he was often 
bound to a post; (2) to send him to work in the quarries 
or in the mill — the occupation of slaves and the poorest 
of free men; (3) to condemn him to hard labor in the 
country.^ Extreme and barbarous punishments are men- 

* Don. ad Ter. And. III. 5. 12: " ignominiae magis quam supplicii 
causa." Plaut. Cas. 389; Ter. Afid. 618. The yoke was also worn by 
slaves about to be crucified cf. Plaut. Most. 56, Mil. Glor. 359-60: 
" patibulum." Plaut. Asin. 298, Bacc. 779, Capt. 650: "uirgae"; Pers. 
279, Rud. 636: "ulmei"; Capt. 658: "lora"; Pseud. 1240: " Hagrum" 
cf. Most. S7, Men. 951. 

* Plaut. Capt. 112, et seq., 357, 722, et seq., Asin. 548-553, Most. 1065; 
Ter. Phorm. 249 cf. Polyb. XX. 10. Plaut. Bacc. 823: " astringite ad 
columnam fortiter" cf. Poen. 1153: " puteum . . .ad robustum codicem." 
Bacc. 781 : " ferratusque in pistrino aetatejn conteras " cf. Epid. 121, 
Pers. 22, Poen. 827-8; Ter. And. 600. Plaut. Most. 4; Ter. Phorm. 
249-50. 



8;] SLAVES 87 

tioned, such as cutting off the hands, or breaking the ankle 
bones, but these cases were doubtless very exceptional/ 
Severity of treatment was not confined to the male slaves. 
The female slaves were subject to much the same penalties 
of flogging and fetters.^ 

Death was usually inflicted by crucifixion, the slave being 
led to execution wearing the yoke (patibulum). Some- 
times nails were driven through the hands and feet.^ 

As slaves might naturally think of running away to 
escape punishment or to gain liberty, great care was taken 
to guard against it. Runaway slaves when recaptured 
might be put to death, or if their life was spared, were 
marked with a brand. Anyone who received a fugitive, 
moreover, was liable to a penalty for so doing. The best 
recourse for a delinquent slave was to find some influential 
man, precator, who would intercede with the master on his 
behalf." 

A slave might obtain his freedom either by purchase or 
in return for some unusual service. In some cases, if a 
slave belonging to a private individual had exhibited notable 
bravery or loyalty to the state, the state might purchase him 
from his master at public expense and then set him free.^ 
According to the strictly legal formula of emancipation the 

^Plaut. Capt. 667-8, Rud. 1059. 

' Plaut. True. 775, et seq. cf. Ter. Ad. 846-7. 

*Plaut. Most. 56, 360: " oMgantur bis pedes, bis bracchia" cf. Mil. 
Glor. 359-60, 372-3: " scio crucem futuram mihi sepulcrum; \ ibi mei 
maiores sunt siti, pater, auos, proauos, abauos." 

* Polyb. I. 69 : runaway slaves when recovered might be put to death 
with torture in accordance with the law; Plaut. Cas. 401, Poen. 184; 
Ter. Heaut. 976: " precatorem." 

* Plaut. Cas. 474, Asin. 650, et seq., Ter. And. 37-9: "feci ex seruo 
ut esses libertus mihi, | propterea quod seruibas liberaliter: \ quod 
habui summum pretium persolui tibi." Liv. XXVI. 27, XXXII. 26. 14. 



88 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [88 

master brought the slave before the praetor and pronounced 
the words " liber esto." The magistrate then ratified the 
act by striking the slave with his rod (festuca). A slave 
might also become free simply by the consent of his master 
without going through the technical legal formula, but such 
manumission was incomplete and unstable. Only the for- 
mal emancipation ratified by the authority of the magistrate 
was absolutely final/ 

When a slave was set free, he would cut his hair and 
assume the cap (pileus) which was the sign of freedom. 
After the formal emancipation this was assimied in the 
temple of the goddess Feronia, but those who had been in- 
formally set free might, without further ceremony, simply 
assume the pileus or fillet their head with white wool as the 
symbol of their changed condition.^ 

According to law the slave had no legal rights but was 
to be regarded as a piece of property. Cato classes slaves 
with the cattle, the asses, and the work-implements in mak- 
ing the inventory of a country estate, and Polybius, who 
puts cattle and slaves " among those commodities which 
are the first necessaries of existence" (Polyb. IV. 38), in 
describing a certain state speaks of it as " populous as well 
as . . . richly furnished with slaves and other property " 
(Polyb. IV. 73). The slave had no rights of ownership 
except on sufferance from his master, no father, no marriage, 
no homeland — even his testimony was not accepted as legal 

^Plaut. Epid. 730, Ter. Ad. 969-70 cf. Plaut. Men. 1 148-9: "liber esto 
... I sed meliorest opus auspicio, ut liber perpetuo siem " ; Pers. 487 : 
" i ad forum ad praetorem " ; Mil. Glor. 961 : " ingenuan an festuca facta 
e serua liberast." 

* Plaut, Pers. 447: " supplicatum eras eat." Liv. XXIV. 16. 18: 
" pilleati aut lana uelatis capitibus uolones epulati sunt." Polyb. XXX. 
19: "with shorn hair and wearing a cap, toga, and shoes, and in fact 
exactly in the garb worn by those recently manumitted at Rome, whom 
they call liberti." 



89] SLAVES 89 

evidence unless obtained through torture/ In Plautus 
{Epid. 2'^y) the slave even feels it incumbent upon him to 
apologize for being more ingenious than a free man and 
prefaces his suggestion with a humble apology. 

A slave usually expected to be kept at work until he out- 
grew his usefulness, and when he became old or sick, was 
often removed by a speedy sale.^ He who had no hope of 
purchasing his freedom, could only resign himself to his lot 
as the aged Syra of the M creator (671 et seq.), who, when 
she was chided by her mistress for not approaching more 
swiftly, answered : " I cannot, in truth, so heavy is the bur- 
den that I bear!" "What burden?" asks the mistress in 
astonishment, for the slave's hands are empty. " The bur- 
den of eighty-four years ; and to this burden are added the 
burdens of slavery, of toil, of thirst. All these which I 
bear, weigh me down." 

The slave had no recognized religious cult of his own. 
The master sacrificed for the entire familia. The uilicus, 
however, was allowed to make an offering to the Compi- 
tales, and the uilica was to decorate the house with a wreath 
on the Kalends, Nones, and Ides, and do reverence to the 
Lar Familiaris, although she could not perform any sacri- 
fice nor order one to be performed without the command of 
the master or mistress. Either a slave or a free man was 
permitted to perform the rite of Mars Silvanus.^ 

The entire management of the household was conducted 

'Cato R. R. X. Plaut. Capt. 574: "quern patrem, qui seruos est" 
cf. Caecilius iStatius Ex incert. fab. IV, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 74: 
" quibus nee mater nee pater, \ tanta coniidentia? auferte istam enim 
superbiam " ; Plaut. Pers. 641 : " quando hie seruio, haec patriast mea." 
Ter. Hec. 77Z' " ancillas dedo: quolubet cruciatu per me exquire" cf. 
And. 771, 786, Phorm. 292-3. 

* Cato R. R. II. 7; Plut. Cat. maj. 4. 

8Cato R. R. V. 3, CXLIII. i, 2; Mars Silvanus cf. ibid. LXXXIII: 
*' earn rem diuinam uel seruus uel liber licebit faciat." 



go SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [go 

on the principle that slaves were ready to steal whenever an 
opportunity offered, and this assumption of the thieving, 
deceitful qualities of slaves as a class runs all through the 
comedies. There are, however, in the same comedies strik- 
ing instances of faithful attachment of slaves to their mas- 
ters and of real affection between them, and doubtless such 
cases were not uncommon. As a matter of fact the slaves 
were probably not in general badly treated, and could look 
forward to obtaining their freedom and to being given a 
start by their master if they had served him faithfully.^ 

Not only, as has been noted, the self-interest of the mas- 
ters would insure their slaves a certain degree of considera- 
tion and make them refrain from excessive harshness which 
would impair the health and therefore the value of their 
property, but also philosophy was gradually introducing 
broader and more humane ideas in counter-distinction to 
the old conception of the slave as a thing. Only in a state 
of society which had already felt these ideas would a slave, 
as in the Asinaria of Plautus (489-90), be able to say to a 
man of higher station: "Tcmt ego homo sum quam tu." 

' Plaut. Asin. 256-7, 272 : " illic homo aedis compilauit, more si fecit 
suo" cf. Afranius Talio, Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 207: "Uos quibus cordi 
est intra tunicam manus laeua [at] dextra in erile penum." For in- 
stances of attachment of slave cf. Messenio in the Menaechmi, 
Tyndaris in the Captivi, Geta in the Adelphoe. 



CHAPTER V 
Freedmen and Clients 

The term " clientship " was originally applied to' the 
hereditary legal relations between a poor citizen and a richer 
and more influential man to whom he had bound himself for 
protection by ties of mutual obligation. Slaves who had 
been liberated, also became the clients of their former master. 
Marquardt remarks that in the latter part of the Republic 
the class of clients in the original sense of the word was 
extinct. Only freedmen still composed it, and the term 
patronus, which originally was contrasted with that of 
cliens, had come to apply exclusively tO! the enfranchising 
master.^ While it is true that the great majority of clients 
were now freedmen, there is evidence that traces of the old 
legal clientship still survived. Even later in the Republic 
Caius Herennius, when summoned as witness against 
Marius, claimed that he could not legally give such evidence 
as Marius was a client of his family, and his claim was 
allowed.^ 

Where the terms cliens or patronus are used in Plautus 
and Terence, it is not in every case possible to distinguish 

^ Marquardt, Vie privee des R., vol. i, p. 239. 

^Plut. Marius 5 cf. Cato Orat. reliq. XLI. i, «d. Jord. p. 59: "quod 
maiores sanctius habuere defendi pupillos quam clientem non fallere. 
aduersos cognatos pro cliente testatur, testimonium aduersus clientem 
nemo dicit. patrem pritnum, postea patronum proximum nomen ha- 
buere"; Bruns, Pontes luris Romani, p. 24, Tab. V. 8; p. 33, Tab. 
VIII. 21. 

91] 91 



92 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [92 

the relationship implied. In the Adelphoe of Terence is 
an instance which may possibly represent hereditary client- 
ship. Here the widow and daughter of a citizen, people of 
humble position and limited means, have suffered an in- 
justice. Their slave appeals for help on their behalf to 
Hegio with the words : " In te spes omnis, Hegio, nobis 
sitast: te solum hahenius, tu es patromis, tu pater: Ule tibi 
moriens nos commendauit senex: si deseris tu, periinms." 
To this Hegio replies : '' Caue dixeris: neque faciam neque 
me satis pie posse arbitror ". Later on, however, the dead 
father is mentioned as the friend and contemporary of 
Demea, the father of the culprit, and as the relative (cog- 
natus) of Hegio. The exact status of Hegio as a protector, 
therefore, is not clear. As a cognatus, he would naturally 
have certain rights and duties towards the wife and childl 
of his relative, and as a patronus it would also be his place 
to protect them. It is possible that the slave in making hisi 
appeal for aid, uses the expression '' tu es patronus " simply 
to give force to his words.^ 

In the Rudens of Plautus Daemones rejoices in the fact 
of having acquired twO' clients in the shipwrecked maidens 
whom he protects from the leno, saying: "Bene factum 
et uolup est me ho die his mulierculis tetulisse auxilium. 
ictm clientes repperi." As these maidens are in a foreign 
territory in which they have no legal rights, the relation- 
ship here is based wholly on the question of protection. In 
Terence in the Eunuchus Thais commends herself to the 
father of her lover, and the formal expression is used: 
"Se commendauit, in clientelam et Udern nobis dedit se." ^ 

In freeing a slave the master became his patronus. The 
former slave was now called libertus or libertinus, and Livy 

* Ter. Ad. 455-9, 465-6, 494- 

' Plaut. Rud. 892-3 ; Ter. Eun. 1039-40. 



Q^] FREEDMEN AND CLIENTS 93 

uses the expression " cliens Hbertinus "} Suetonius states 
that in the time of Appius and for some time subsequently the 
word lihertinus was applied not to those who were them- 
selves emancipated but to their children, but if the condi- 
tion described by Suetonius did exist, it is not found in 
Plautus. In Plautus the word libertinus is distinctly ap- 
plied to the liberated slave. Moreover, after the second 
Punic War the children of f reedmen were allowed to wear 
the bulla, which was worn only by pueri ingenuir 

The ties of mutual obligation between master and f reed- 
man and between patron and client are now so closely con- 
nected that they may be considered as a whole. In freeing 
a slave the master, as has been said, became the patronu^ 
and still retained the right toi certain services from the 
libertus.^ It was customary to him to make some provision 
for the future of the liber tus, and he might even loan or 
give him a certain capital although there was no legal obli- 
gation to make such provision.^ The liberHts frequently 

1 Liv. XLIII. 16. 4. 

' Suet. Claud. 24: " tern paribus Appi et deinceps aliquandiu libertinos 
dictos non ipsos,qui manu emitterentur,sed ingenuos ex his procreatos." 
Plaut. Mil. Glor. 961-3 : " ingenuan an fcstuca facta e serua liherast? | 
...uah! egone ut ad te ah libertina esse auderem internuntius, \ qui 
ingenuis sati' responsare nequeas quae cupiunt tut?" Macrob. Sat. 
I. 6. 14. 

*Sohm, op. cit., p. 170, points out that as manumission was regarded 
as a kind of new birth, the master (patronus) stood to his freedman 
in a relation analogous to the relation between father and son. On 
the question of the duties of the freedman towards his patron cf. 
Karlowa, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 142, et seq.: (i) obsequium, (2) operae, 
(3) bona. 

•* Ter. Ad. 979-81: " siquideni porro, Micio, | tii, tuom oMcium fades, 
atque huic aliquid paulum prae manu | dederis, unde utatur, reddet tibi 
cito"; Plaut. Epid. 726-7: "tibi dabo . . . liberatatem. at posteaf \ nouo 
liberto opus est quod papet. dabitur, praebebo cibum"; Cure. S47-8: 
" nee mihi quidem libertus ullust. fact' sapientius | quam pars lenonum, 
Ubertos qui habent et eos deserunt." 



g4 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [94 

continued his accustomed functions as personal attendant 
of the master or served him as manager of some business 
enterprise/ 

If the cHent did not live in the house, he came each morn- 
ing to pay hiSi respects and inquire after the patron's health ; 
he consulted him about all his affairs, even' the marriage of 
his children ; ^ and in case the patron was fined, the clients 
contributed towards the amount, sometimes so generously 
that in the case of Lucius Scipio " so large a contribution 
was made by his relations, friends, and clients that, if he 
had accepted it, he would have been much richer than before 
this misfortune." ^ 

The patron in return looked after the legal interests of 
his client and refrained from giving testimony against him. 
For these judicial services he was not expected to receive 
any pecuniary reward.* The recognized force of the bond 
between cliens and patronus is significantly indicated in 
Plautus by the matter-of-fact assumption that the request 
of a patronus is " tarn . . . in procliui quam imher est 
quando pluit." ^ 

In 168 B. C. freedmen were enrolled in the four city 
tribes, but those who' had a son over five years old were! 
given the political privilege of being rated in the tribe in 
which they had been enrolled at the time of the previous 

^ Plaut. Men. 1032-4 : " sed, patrone, te opsecro, \ ne minus imperes 
mihi quam quom tuos seruos fui. \ aptid ted habitabo et quando ibis, 
una tecum ibo domum " ; Ter. And. 35, et seq. ; Plut. Cat. maj. 21 : 
" he [Cato] made those who wished to borrow money form themselves 
into an association of fifty persons . . . and held one share in the under- 
taking himself, which was managed by the freedman Quintio." 

* Plaut. Pers. 78 ; Plut. Cat. maj. 24. 
'Liv. XXXVIII. 60. 9. 

* Plaut. Men. 580, et seq.; Plut. Marius 5; Liv. XXXIV. 4- 9- 
5 Plaut. Capt. 335-6. 



gr] FREEDMEN AND CLIENTS 95 

census, and those who' had a farm in the country which was 
worth more than 30,000 HS. were allowed to be included 
in the country tribes. Freedmen might be called on for 
service in the navy under free-born officers, and in 217 B. 
C. in the levy of a new arniy at Rome after Trasimene, 
Livy tells us that freedmen who had children and were of 
military age, had taken the military oath/ 

The prominent men of the time were already surround- 
ing themselves more and more with large numbers of de- 
pendents, whom they attached to themselves by their gener- 
osity and protection. The character of the client became a 
minor consideration. Plautus puts in the mouth of one of 
one of his characters a satirical reflection on these changing 
conditions: "What a foolish and bothersome custom we 
have! And the richer and more prominent a man is, the 
more he follows it. Everyone wants a great crowd of 
clients ! Whether these clients are reputable or disreputable, 
that makes not a particle of difference. " ^ 

The throng of clients included still another class: the 
literary men who attached themselves to some great man 
as hangers-on and enjoyed his patronage. As example of 
this is Ennius, who became the client of M, Fulvius Nobilior. 
Naturally a literary man who was thus connected with a 
distinguished house, not only turned his talents more or less 
to the praise and glorification oi his patron but was in- 
fluenced as well in the expression of his opinions by the 
views of his lord. In this form, therefore, clientship wasi 
extremely important, as the patrons through their control 

^Liv. XLV. 15. I, 2; XL. 18. 7, XLII. 27. 3; XXII. 11. 8. Although 
the manumitted slave at Rome became a citizen, he did not have full 
rights. Cf. Sohm, op. cit., p. 170; Girard, op. cit., pp. 124-5. 

^ Plaut. Men. 571, et seq. 



^^ 



> 



'^A, 

^ 



^- 



q6 social and private life at ROME [96 

of the literary men gained a certain amount of control over 
public opinion. ^ 

In many cases the slaves who has obtained their freedom 
made undesirable citizens who brought into civil life habits 
of idleness and unreliability, such citizens as Plautus pict- 
i ures in the Persa, the Poemdus, and the Menaechmi, men 
who had but recently given up their peculium in order ta 
be counted as citizens, and who, rendered arrogant by their 
unaccustomed independence, feared nothing so much as toi 
be mistaken for slaves; men who except perhaps on the 
occasion of an invitation to dinner, refused to hurry, no 
matter how important the business on which they were sum- 
|, I moned, on the ground that " it befits a freeman to walk 
through the city at a moderate pace ... it is the part of 
a mere slave to tear along at full speed." Lazy and quarrel- 
some, they haunted the courts, and Plautus humorously 
describes them : 

^Aul. Gell. XII. 4 gives a passage from Ennius describing a typical 
friend of such a great lord : 

" haece locutus uocat, quocum bene saepe libenter 
mensam sermonesque suos rerumque suarum 
comiter inpertit, magnum £um lassus diet 
partem fuisset de summis rebus regundis 
consilio indu foro lato sanctoque senatu; 
ctii res audacter magnas paruasque iocumque 
eloqueretur et -f cuncta malaque et bona dictu 
euomeret, si qui uellet, tutoque locaret, 
quocum multa uolup <iac^ gaudia clamque palamque; 
tngenium, cui nulla malum sententia suadet 
ut faceret facinus leuis out mains; doctus, fidelis, 
suauis homo, facundus, suo contentus, beatus, 
scitus, secunda loquens in tempore, commodus, uerbum 
paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, uetustas 
quern facit et mores ueteresque nouosque tenentem, 
multorum ueterum leges diuumque hominumque ; 
prudenter qui dicta loquitie tacereue posset: 
hunc inter pugnas conpellat Seruilius sic." 



gy] FREEDMEN AND CLIENTS 97 

" nam istorum nullus nefastust: comitiales sunt meri; 
ibi habitant, ibi eos conspicias quam praetorem saepius." 

{Poen. 584, et seq.) 

The ambitions of the time for commercial aggrandizement, 
for palatial residences, for throngs of slaves, naturally be- 
came the ambitions of the freedman himself. Forgetful of 
his own recent servitude or desirous of enjoying for him- 
self the feeling of owner rather than chattel, he aimed with- 
out being over-scrupulous as tO' the means of acquisition, 
at the goal expressed by Gripus, the slave of the Rudens: 

" iam ubi liber ero, igitur demum instruam agrum atque aedis, mancupia 
nauibu' magnis mercaturam faciam, apud reges rex perhibebor." ^ 

1 Plaut. Pers. 838-9, Poen. 515, et seq., Men. 580, et seq., Rtid. 930, et seq. 



•■ CHAPTER VI 

Finance and Industry 

In his discussion of the question whether or not Plautus 
presents to his audience the outward conditions of Roman 
Hfe, Sellar remarks that " the only differences in station 
among his personages are those of rich and poor, free and 
slave. There is no recognition of those great distinctions 
of birth, privilege, and political status which were so per- 
vading a characteristic of Roman life." ^ 

Far from being a strong proof that the comedies do not 
portray the environment of the poet, however, the very em- 
phasis on this distinction is a striking reflection of the 
changing economic conditions in Rome at the time. The 
political contrast of patrician and plebeian had disappeared, 
but there was fast growing up in the state a contrast equally 
sharp between rich and poor. The period is marked by a 
pronounced development of commerce and trade and of 
speculation on a large scale, and in consequence by the 
steadily increasing importance of a class of wealthy men 
engaged in such enterprises. 

In all matters pertaining to money the Roman attitude 
was one of the utmost accuracy and precision. This was 
carried so' far that, as Polybius tells us, " no one will pay ai 
single talent before the appointed day; so excessively par- 
ticular are they about money and so profitable do they con- 
sider time." ^ Not only did this exactness call forth a reg- 

^ Sellar, Roman Poets, p. 169. 
*Polyb. XXXII. 13. 

98 [98 



99] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY 99 

ular system of banking, but also each individual kept his pri- 
vate account, ratiuncula, which included such items as the 
amount on hand at the bankers, the sums which had been 
lent out or borrowed, the expenditure for provisions, and 
the hke/ 

Little ready money was kept in the house. ^ Instead it 
was deposited either in a temple ^ or with the professional 
bankers, argentarii, and withdrawn in varying amounts as 
it was needed. The business methods of the bankers were 
similar in some respects to the modern, and careful records 
were kept of deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and interest 
due.* It was not necessary for a depositor to draw out the 
actual money and pay it over in order to discharge an obli- 
gation imless he wished, as he could give a scriptum which 
apparently corresponded to the modern check. ^ A business 
device similar to our promissory note also existed.® In 
some transactions the man would simply leave instructions 
with his banker, who then paid over the money to the other 
party when it was called for and entered the transfer on his 
records.^ 

The most important activity of the argentaritts was the 
loaning of money at interest. The financial responsibility 

^ Plaut. Capt. 192-3 : " ibo intra atque intus subducam ratiunculam " ; 
Cure. 371-4: " subduxi ratiunculam \ quantum aeris mihi sit quantumque 
alieni siet " ; True. 740 ; Cato R. R. II. 5 : " rationes putare argentariam." 

' Plaut. Asin. 116, Aul. 580, et seq., Bacc. 1060. 

'Deposits of money in temples: Plaut. Aul. 580, et seq., 608, et seq., 
Bacc. 312-3: "ibidem publicitus seruant." 

^ Plaut. Aul. 527: " putatur ratio cum argentario"; Epid. 53-4; 
Polyb. XXXII. 13. 

* Plaut. Trin. 982: " fassu's Charmidem dedisse aurum tibi. scriptum 
quidem " ; Cure. 345-7. 

® Plaut. Asin. 439, et seq.: " priu'quae credidi, uix anno post exegi; \ 
nunc sat agit: adducit domum etiam ultro et scribit nummos." 

^ Polyb. XXXII. 13. 



lOO SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [iqo 

of would-be borrowers was carefully examined, and the 
place of the modern mercantile agency with its credit lists 
was filled to some extent by individual initiative. In case a 
person had been found to be a bad risk, a warning was 
circulated through the city advising people not to trust him 
if he tried to arrange for a loan/ The rates of interest 
were very often usurious, and attempts were made by the 
state to check this by severe laws, by which, for example, a 
usurer was compelled to pay four times the sum, whereas a 
thief was fined only twice the value of the stolen article.^ 
These laws, however, continued to be evaded or broken by 
the argentarii, who regarded them as " boiling water that 
soon cools off." A method which was practised to escape 
the legal restrictions imposed, was to transfer the money 
through one of the allies who were not subject to the law 
of Rome, and this practice became such a crying evil that 
in 193 B. C. it was decreed that all financial business within 
the peninsula be subject to Roman law.^' 

The low esteem in which the argentarii were held, involv- 
ing the general opinion of their untrustworthiness, is not 
only expressed by Cato, but runs all through the comedies. 
We are told that when money has been entrusted to an 
argentarius, he " flees from the forum more quickly than a 
hare when it is let out at the games " or than " a carriage 
wheel turns at full speed " ; that it is better to be " forno 
occensos quatn foro," and so on.* The frequency of the 

* Plaut. Pseud. 303-4 : " annorum lex me perdit quinauicenaria. | 
metuont credere omnes"; Merc. 51-2: " conclamitare tota urbe et 
praedicere \ omnes tenerent mutuitanti credere." 

* Cato R. R. Praef. i : " ita in legibus posiuerunt, furem dupli con- 
demnari, faeneratorem quadrupli" cf. Plaut. Poen. 184, 1351. 

'Plaut. Cure. 511, 377-9; I-iv. XXXV. 7. 1-5. 

*Cato Mem. Diet. 63, ed. Jord. p. 108: "quid fenerari? turn Cato, 
quid hominem, inquit, occidere?" Plaut. Pers. 435-6, 442-3, Cure. 506-8, 
Epid. 119 cf. Cure. Z7^79, 679-85. 



lOi] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY lOi 

references to the bankers is a proof of their importance 
and of the prominent part which they played in the daily 
life of the city, and the apparent immunity with which they 
continued to evade the laws is evidence of their power. 

The four most usual investments for the rich apart from 
that of loaning money at high interest are given by Plautus : 
public work, maritime commerce, trade (mercatura) , or 
slave-traffic/ Polybius gives an account of the system of 
getting public work done by contract. These contracts, 
which were awarded by the censors and were under the con- 
trol of the Senate, provided not only for such important 
matters as the collection of revenue and the construction of 
buildings but also for the restoration and repair of temples, 
of aqueducts and sewers, the paving of streets, and other 
matters of the kind extending even to minor details like the 
erection of iron gates in the Circus.^ Contracts were also 
awarded for the equipment of the army, and in these agree- 
ments the transporting of the supplies was at the risk not of 
the contractor but of the state. That the censor did not 
award all public contracts is shown by the fact that the 
contract for supplies for the army in Macedonia was 
awarded by the praetor.^ 

Companies were formed, and the ramifications of con- 
tract work were so widely extended that nearly all persons 
in the state were in some way interested, either as contrac- 
tors themselves, as securities for the contractors, or as em- 
ployes in the work.* In general the contracts were awarded 

^ Plaut. Trin. 331-2 : " puhlicisne adflnis fuit an maritumis negotiis? \ 
mercaturam an uenalis hahuitf" cf. Rud. 930, et seq. 

*Polyb. VI. 17; Liv. XXXII. 7. 3 (portoria), XLII. 19, 1-2 (revenue 
of ager Campanus) cf. Plaut. True, 143, et seq. {scriptural . Variety 
of contracts awarded by censors : Liv. XXXIX. 44. 5, et seq., XL. 
SI. 2, et seq., XLI. 27. 5, et seq. 

» Liv. XXIII. 49- 2, XXV. 3. 10, XLIV. 16. 4. 

*■ Polyb. VI. 17. 



I02 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [102 

on extremely profitable terms. Cato in his censorship 
farmed out the different branches of the revenue at very 
high prices and " bargained with the contractors for the 
performance of the public services on the lowest terms," 
but he was exceptional in his strictness. Even under him, 
w^hen certain government contractors discovered that an 
unprofitable contract had been awarded them, they were 
powerful enough to persuade the Senate to re-open the 
bidding.^ 

The collection of the various revenues was the most im- 
portant function of the public ani (state contractors) and 
one in which they employed a host of subordinates. The 
customs dues which were levied everywhere throughout the 
Roman dominions, were farmed out by the censors for the 
various places." In 187 B. C. when permission was granted 
to the Ambracians of levying " what duties (portoria) they 
thought proper on goods conveyed by land 'or sea," it was 
stipulated that the Romans and the Latin allies should be 
exempt from them, but in 179 B. C. many port duties and 
customs were established,^ and it is evident from the come- 
dies that the portoria were in full force in the time of Plau- 
tus and Terence.* 

The customs officials were evidently quite as troublesome 
as those of to-day, or even more so. They closely inspected 
everything that was brought in; opened sealed letters to 
make sure that they contained nothing contraband ; and sub- 
jected people to a searching cross-examination. The very 
name portitor was so signifiicant of pertinacious questioning 

iLiv. XXXIX. 44. 7; Plut. Cat. maj. 19. 

*Liv. XXXII. 7. 3: "they also farmed the port-duties at Capua, 
and at Puteoli, and of the fort situated where the city now stands." 

»Liv. XXXVIII. 44. 4, XL. 51. 8. 

* Plant. Men. 117-8, Asin. 241-2, Stick. 366, Trin. 794-S; Ter. Phorm. 
150, cf. Caec. Stat. Hypoholimaeus Aeschinus, 'Ribb. Frag. Com. p. Si' 



103] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY IO3 

that in the Menaechmi of Plautus a husband, complaining 
of the curiosity of his wife as to his most trifling actions, 
exclaims : " I have married a portitor — I have to tell her all 
my business, everything I have done and everything I am 
doing." ^ 

The collection of the revenue from the public lands also 
offered a large field of activity to the puhlicani.- Plautus 
satirizes their collection of the scriptura, the quota paid by 
the occupants on their herds, but he comments as well upon 
the landholders themselves. While the puhlicani are " pei- 
iuriosi" on the other hand if the occupants of the land have 
managed their affairs badly and have not the wherewithal 
to pay the scriptura, they blame the puhlicani anyway, and 
it is a question which to prefer.^ 

The public lands were regarded as a good investment by 
the wealthy, and their hold upon them was steadily develop- 
ing. In 196 B. C. the aediles had fined several farmers of 
state pasturage, pecuarii,^ but conditions were changing. 
By 1 73 B. C. private individuals in Campania, for example, 
had gradually extended their bounds so as to include a con- 
siderable part of the public lands, and the State was appar- 
ently unable to oppose them effectively, or even force them 
to accept an indemnity in exchange for the land as author- 
ized by the Senate.^ The acquiescence of the state shows 

^ Plaut. Trin. 794-5: " apud portitores eas resignatas . . . \ inspec- 
tasque"; Men. 117-8. 

* Liv. XLII. 19. 1-2. 

' Plaut. True. 143, et seq. 

* Liv. XXXIII. 42. 10. 

^ Liv. XXVII. 3. I, XLII. I. 6, 9. 7, 19. 1-2. Cic. de Leg. agrar. 11. 
30. 82: "quod, cum a maioribus nostris P. Lentulus in ea loca missus 
esset ut priiiatos agros, qui in publicum Campanum incurrebant, pecunia 
puhlica coemeret, dicitur renuntiasse, nulla se pecunia fundum cuiusdam 
emere potuisse: eumqtie, qui nollet uendere, idea negasse se adduci 
posse, uti uenderet." 



I04 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [104 

clearly the influence which had been acquired by the capi- 
talists. 

An attempt at repression was made in 169 B. C. by an 
edict that no tax-farmer nor contractor for public works at 
the previous litstrum should be admitted to the auctions of 
that year, nor even be allowed an interest in them as share- 
holder. The cause of the puhlicani, however, was upheld 
by the tribune P. Rutilius Rufus, who proposed that the 
awards made by the censors should be annulled. When the 
censors attempted to combat this proposal, a charge of 
perduellio was brought against them. They were acquitted, 
but the power of the puhlicani and the risk incurred by any- 
one interfering with their speculations is shown by the pos- 
sibility of such a charge being brought.^ Another proof of 
the strong position they held is found in the fact that even 
when the Senate was aware of fraudulent practices to cheat 
the state, no official action was taken to check them, as "the 
fathers were unwilling that any offense should be given to 
the order of revenue farmers while affairs were in such a 
state." - 

The second form of investment suggested by Plautus. 
marine commerce, while recognized as extremely lucrative 
and one in which a man might quadruple his fortune, was 
also regarded as very precarious. The number and strength 
of the pirates who swarmed on the seas was the greatest 
source of danger, and during the wars with Carthage there 
was the additional risk of being captured by the enemy's 
fleet. ' 

^Liv. XLIII. 16. I, et seq. 

^Liv. XXV. 3- 12. 

'Cato Praef. i, 3: " praestare mercaturis rem quaerere, nisi tarn 
periculosum sit . . . mercatorem autem strenuum studiosumque rei quae- 
rendae existimo, uerum . . . periculosum et calamitosum " ; Plaut. Stick. 
402, et seq. : " quadruplicauit rem meam " ; Trin. 1087-9, -^i^' Glor.^ 
1 17-8; Liv. XXII. II. 6. 



I05] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY 105 

At the beginning of the Punic wars Roman merchants 
exported goods to some extent/ but as time went on atten- 
tion became largely devoted to the importation of pro- 
visions, owing in part to the decline in the supply of grain 
produced in Italy and in part to the rapid increase of the city 
population. The import, in fact, was sometimes so large, 
and the prices in consequence so cheapened that the unfor- 
tunate merchant would willingly " surrender the corn to 
the mariners for the freight." ^ 

As the hazards of marine commerce made it unwise for 
an individual to sink all his capital in a single vessel, asso- 
ciations were frequently formed to divide the risk. In such 
an organized society of navigation the shareholders united 
and constructed a number of vessels at common expense.^ 
In this way the liability was divided, and the chances of loss 
were accordingly diminished. 

This maritime trade was almost exclusively in the hands 
of the knights. Senators and sons of senators were de- 
barred from engaging openly in such enterprises, as by the 
lex Claudia of 218 B. C. they were forbidden tO' have at sea 
a vessel of more than three hundred amphoras, a tonnage 
sufficient only for the transport of the products of their 
own estates.* It is probable that this law was not always 
observed, however, and by the time of Cicero it was en- 
tirely dead.^ 

It was not only the wealthier class with their enterprises 

1 Polyb. I. 83. 

2 Liv. XXII. 37. 6, XXX. 26. 6, XXXI. 4- 6 ; XXXI. 50. i : cheapness 
of provisions cf. XXX. 38. 5. 

' Plut. Cat. maj. 21. 

* Liv. XXI. 6z. 3^4 : lex Claudia. 

^ Cic. in Verr. II. v. 18. 45 : " ne quaeram, qui licuerit aediUcare nauem 
senatori. Antiquae sunt istae leges, et mortuae quemadmodum tu soles 
dicere, quae ttetant." 



lo6 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [io6 

on a large scale who were interested in foreign trade. There 
were also a number of citizens of moderate fortune who 
recognized the advantages of traffic abroad/ Even soldiers 
in the armies, who obtained leave of absence while the 
forces were in winter quarters, " generally carried money 
in their purses for the purpose of trading." - 

Retail trade and handicrafts were regarded by the upper 
classes at Rome with prejudice, and the work was in many 
cases in the hands of freedmen or of slaves who carried it 
on for the profit of their master. Certain artes were dis- 
tinguished as artes ludicrae, which apparently referred to 
such modes of livelihood as that of the dancer, the juggler, 
and the actor." 

A highly developed tendency towards specialization of 
labor and concentration of attention upon artistic work- 
manship is evident in the comedies. The character of the 
plays as a source naturally lays particular stress upon the 
specialization among workers in cloth and articles of cloth- 
ing and adornment. We hear of different cloth-workers as 
the fullones (fullers), the linteones (linen-workers), the 
lanarii (wool-workers), the textores limhularii (fringe- 
makers); of experts in various dyes (infectores), as the 
violet-dyers {violarii) and the dyers of different shades of 
yellow {carinarii, molocinarii, corcotarii), of makers of 
special parts of the costume as the Uammarii (veil-makers), 
the manulearii (muff-makers), the caupones pcttagiarii (bor- 
der-makers), the zonarii (girdle-makers); of makers of 

^ Plaut. Stick. 402, et seq., Merc. 74-7 : " agrum se uendidisse atque 
ea pecunia | nauim . . . parasse atque ea se mercis uectatunt undique, \ 
adeo dtim, quae turn haheret, peperisset bona " ; Rud. 930, et seq. 

=> Liv. XXXIII. 29. 4. 

* Plaut. Aul. 626-7: " coepif artem facere ludicram \ atque... emi- 
care"; praestrigiator: Aul. 630, Poen. 1125; praestigiatrix : Amph. 782; 
ludius: Aul. 402. 



107] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY 107 

Special varieties of foot-gear, as the calceolarii, the sutores 
diahathrarii, the solearii; of the sup ellex peilionis (furrier) ; 
and so on/ 

However, from the mention in metal-work of the gold- 
smith, the lead- worker, the maker of jewel-caskets, and 
from the mention in pottery of the ampullarius, we may 
infer that the same movement extended also to other fields 
of production. Among the list of trades and to give some 
idea of their scope and variety may be mentioned the mate- 
riarius (timber-merchant), the lignariits (carpenter), the 
unguentarius (dealer in unguents), the holitor (kitchen- 
gardener), the haiiolus (porter), the cetariiis (fish-monger), 
the fartor (poulterer), the uinarius (wine-merchant), the 
scutarius (shield-maker), the restio (rope-maker) and the 
uito r ( basket-maker ) . " 

* Plaut. Aul. 508, et seq. : " stat fullo, phyrgio, aurufex, lanarius; 
caupones patagiarii, indusiarii^ 
Hammarii, uiolarii, carinarii; 
aut manulearii, aut murobatharii, 
propolae linteones, calceolarii; 
sedentarii sutores diahathrarii, 
solearii astant, astant molocinarii ; 
petunt fullones, sarcinatores petunt; 
strophiarii astant, astant semul sonarii. 
iam hosce apsolutos censeas: cedunt, petunt 
treceni, quoin stant thylacistae in atriis 
textores limbularii, arcularii. 



infectores corcotarii" 
Cf. Mil. Glor. 691, et seq., Epid. 222, et seq. ; supellex pellionis: Men, 404. 

^Aurufex: Plaut. Aul. 508, Men. 525.; worker in lead: Cato R. R. 
XXI. 5; arcularius: Plaut. Aul. 519.; ampullarius: Rud. 756; mater- 
iarius: Mil. Glor. 920; lignarius: Liv. XXXV. 41. 10; unguentarius: 
Poen. 703 cf. myropola: Trin. 408, Cas. 238; holitor: Trin. 408, Mil. 
Glor. 193; baiiolus: Poen. 1301, 1354; cetarius: Ter. Eun. 257; fartor: 
Ter. Eun. 257, Plaut. True. 104; uinarius: Poen. 838, Asin. 436; 
scutarius: Epid. Z7', restio: Most. 884; uitor: Rud. 990 cf. Don. ad 
Ter. Eun. IV. 4. 21. 



I08 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [log 

There were also certain trades existent at Rome at this 
time which deserve special mention because of their recent 
innovation and their interest as a direct outgrowth of 
changing conditions. Shipbuilding had not been carried on 
extensively by the Romans until the Punic wars brought the 
need of a navy, but the careful and detailed description 
given in one of the comedies of the entire construction of 
a vessel shows that knowledge of this field of labor must 
already have become so current that its terms were intelli- 
gible to the audience/ 

Although barbers, tonsores, had been brought in from 
Sicily in 300 B. C, they were not much patronized. Some 
of the younger generation might adopt the practice of being- 
shaved daily, but the more conservative Romans still kept 
to the custom of beard and undipped hair.^ As a strag- 
gling, unkempt beard, however, was regarded as slovenly, 
there was some call even among them for the services of 
the tonsor.^ The tonsor also included in his functions the 
care of the nails.* 

Public cooks who hired out their services for the prep- 

^ Plaut. Mil. Glor. 915-21 : "... uhi prohus est architectus, 
bene lineatam si semel carinam conlocauit, 
facile esse nauem facere, ubi fundata, constitutast. 
nunc haec carina sati' probe fundata, [et] bene statutast, 
adsunt fabri architectique <iadsunt'^ ad earn haud inperiti. 
si non nos materiarius remoratur, quod opus<^t'^qui det 
(noui indolem nostri ingeni), cito erit parata nauis." 
* Plin. H. N. VII. 59 (59). 211: "in Italiam ex Sicilia uenere [ton- 
sores'] post Roman conditam anno CCCCLIIII adducente P. Titinio 
Mena . . . antea intonsi fuere. Primus omnium radi cotidie instituit 
Africanus sequens." Hor. Od. II. 15. 11: "intonsi Catonis"; Plaut. 
Capt. 266-7: 

" nunc senex est in tostrina, nunc iam cultros adtinet. 
ne id quidem, inuolucre inicere, uoluit, uestem ut ne inquinet." 
' Liv. XXVII. 34. 6 : " tonderi et squalorem deponere." 
^ Plaut. Aul. 312-3: " quin ipsi pridem tonsor unguis dempserat: 
conlegit, omnia apstulit praesegmina." 



1 09] FINANCE AND INDUSTRY IO9 

aration of banquets were coming, with the growth of luxury, 
to hold an important place in the life of the day/ The in- 
dustry of public baking was introduced into Rome in 174 
B. C. According to Pliny the name pistores was applied 
only to those men " qui far pisebant," but in the time of 
Plautus there were merchants at Rome who sold bread and 
were called pistores.^ 

Different branches of business were each concentrated in 
a special locality. The forum was the great center of activ- 
ity, and the bankers carried on their financial transactions 
there, back of the temple of Castor. The first basilica was 
constructed by Cato, censor in 184 B. C, another by the 
censors M, Fulvius and M. Aemilius Lepidus in 179 B. C, 
and still another, the Basilica Sempronia, in 169 B. C. 
While these buildings were especially for the use of the 
tribunals, they were also used to a large extent by the mer- 
chants and bankers.^ Various shops were located in the 
forum in the Tabernae Veteres and Tabemae Novae.* For 
the provision merchants there were for a time separate f ora 
for the several kinds of goods, such as the forum hoarium 
or cattle-market, the forum olitorium or vegetable-market, 

^For public cooks see chapter on "iSlaves." 

^Plin. H. N. XVIII. II. (28). 107: "pistores Romae non fuere ad 
Persicum usque helium annis ab urbe condita super DLXXX. ipsi 
panem faciebant Quirites, mulierumque id opus maxime erat . . . artoptas 
iain Plautus appellat in fabula, quant Aululariam inscripsit, [Aul. 400] 
magna ob id concertatione eruditorum, an is versus poetae sit illius 
. . . pistoresque tantum eos, qui far pisebant, nominatos." Plaut. Asin. 
200-1 : " quom a pistore panem petimus, .. .\ si aes habent, dant mer- 
cem " ; Trin. 407, Cure. 483. 

' Plaut. Ciirc. 481 : " pone aedem Castoris, ibi sunt subito quibu'credas 
male." Bankers in forum: cf. Pers. 435-6, Asin. 116-7, Cure. 480. 
Construction of Basilicas: Porcia: Liv. XXXIX. 44. 7; Plut. Cat. maj. 
19; of Basilica Fulvia and Aemilia: Liv. XL. 51. 4; of Basilica Sem- 
pronia: Liv. XLIV. 16. 10. Plaut. Cure. 472: "sub basilica". 

* Plaut. Cure. 480: "sub ueteribus"; Liv. XXVI. 27. a. 



no SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [no 

and the forum piscatorium or fish-market, but all these were 
later brought together in one place, called the macellum, 
built in 179 B. C. by M. Fulvius Nobilior. All goods 
offered for sale in the market were closely inspected by the 
aediles, and any not up to the standard were barred out/ 
In the Velabrum were the pisfores, the lanii, and the ole- 
arii; ~ outside the Porta Trigemina the carpenters.^ 

Industrial guilds of various kinds had existed from very 
early times, and combines among the merchants of a guild 
to maintain a fixed price in restraint of trade were not un- 
common in spite of the laws against such coalitions. Plau- 
tus humorously alludes to this practice by the complaint he 
puts in the mouth of Ergasilus in the Captivi: " I went 
first to one man, then to another, then tO' still another; the 
same thing everywhere! They all do business by mutual 
agreement like the oil-merchants in the Velabrum." * It 
has been established as probable that in the present period 
the method of organization into collegia had extended even 
to the professional cooks," but the price for their services 
varied according to their ability. 

"^ Forum boaritim: Liv. XXI. 62. 3, XXXIII. 27. 4; forum olitorimn: 
Liv. XXI. 62. 3, XXXIV. 53. 3; forum piscatorium: Liv. XL. 51. 5; 
Plaut. Cure. 474. Macellum: Ter. Eun. 255 cf. Plaut. Pseud. 790, Rud. 
979-80 : " quom extemplo in macello pisces prolati sient, \ nemo emat." 
cf. Pseud. 169, Aul. 373, et seq. ; Varro L. L. V. 146-7 : " Forum Boar- 
ium, Forum Olitorium, . . . Piscarium . .Cuppedinis . . . Haec omnia 
posteaquam contractu in unum locum quae uictum pertinebant et aedi- 
Hcatus locus, appellatum Macellum." cf. Miiller's Handbuch, vol. iii, 
sec. ii, pp. 192-3, p. 310. Plaut. Rud. 372-3 : " quamuis fastidiosus | 
aedilis est: quae inprobae sunt merces, iactat omnis." 

* Plaut. Capt. 489: "in Velabro olearii" ; Cure. 483: "in Velabro uel 
pistorem uel lanium uel haruspicem." 

'Liv. XXXV. 41. 10: "extra p or tarn Trigeminam inter lignarios." 

* Plaut. Capt. 488, et seq. 

*Harcum, Roman Cooks (Baltimore, 1914), PP- 16-17: the assumption 
is based upon an inscription C. I. L. XI. 3078. This inscription states 



Ill] FINANCE AND IND USTRY 1 1 1 

Business associations and partnerships were common, 
and the system of contracting which was employed on a 
large scale for public work was also much i used for private 
transactions. The owner of the farm, for example, was 
careful to leave a written list of those matters for which 
contracts were to be awarded or taken. These contracts in- 
cluded such matterSi as building and construction work, 
gathering the olive crop, burning lime, and the like.'^ Nat- 
urally not all mercantile transactions were on a cash basis, 
and among responsible business men a credit system on 
large purchases existed.^ Business, both public and private, 
was carried on by sealed tablets, and the receptacles in which 
wares were stored were also' sealed and inscribed with the 
name of the owner. ^ 

Sales, auctiones, were held then as now to dispose of a 
house or its furnishings or other articles for which the 
owner no longer had a use or on which he wished to realize 
money without delay. A crier was sent out to make procla- 

that a gift was presented to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva by a conlegium 
of Faliscan cooks who were then in Sardinia. As the language dates 
it as far back as the time of Plautus, it is a proof " that cooks were 
of considerable importance in other parts of Italy besides 'Rome, and 
hence also in that city by his time." 

.■' Cato R. R. II. 6 : " quae opus sint locato, locentur: quae opera fieri 
uelit et quae locari uelit, uti imperet et ea scripta relinquat " ; ibid., XIV 
" uillam aediftcandam si locabis nouam ah solo." Plaut. Most. 915 
" bene res nostra conlocata est istoc mercimonio." Cato R. R. CXLIV 
" oleam legendam hoc modo locare oportet " ; CXLV : " oleam faciundam 
hoc lege oportet"; XVI. 

* Plaut. Pseud. 301 : " erne die caeca hercle oliuom, id uendito oculata 
die." 

'Plaut. Cure. 551-2: " stultior stulto fuisti qui is tabellis crederes | 
quis res publica et priuata geritur, nonne is crederem " ? cf. Pers. 248, 
Mil. Glor. 130, Trin. 788-90, Bacc. 715 gives the implements of letter- 
writing : " stilum, ceratn et tahellas, linum " ; Poen. 836-7 : " ibi tu uideas 
Utteratas flctilis epistulas, \ pice signatas, nomina insunt cubitum longis 
Utteris," cf. Rud. 478. 



1 1 2 SOCIAL AND PRIVA TE LIFE A T ROME [112 

mation of the event throughout the city, and it was also an- 
nounced by conspicuous posters. The man with something 
to sell, whether a residence at auction or a jar of wine in 
some dark wine-shop, was fully alive to the value of the 
modem slogan, " It pays to advertise." This is shown in 
the loud proclamations and prominent posters and in the 
cubit-tall inscriptions of the earthen vessels from which the 
purchaser might choose his favorite.^ 

With similar appreciation of the value of publicity, notices 
of articles lost and found were also posted. In Plautus we 
find a slave proclaiming in the following words his good 
intentions in the matter of the well-filled purse he has 
found : " I will advertise everywhere in letters a cubit high 
that if anyone has lost a wallet containing a large sum in 
gold and silver, he can apply to Gripus for it." ^ 

^AucHones: Cato R. R. II. 7; Plaut. Epid. 235, Poen. 1421, Stick. 
201-4 ^/- 193-5 '■ " M^ mores harharos \ discam atque ut faciam praeconis 
compendium \ itaque auctionem praedicere" cf. Men. 1155-6, Poen. 
II, et seq.', Trin. 168: " aedis uenalis hasce inscribit litteris" ; Ter. 
Heaut. 144-5. Plaut. Poen. 836-7 : " nomina insunt cubitum Ipngis 
litteris'' 

^ Plaut. Rud. 1294-6. 



CHAPTER VII 

Religion 

A general survey of the religious attitude of this period 
is significant in view of the many changes which were in 
progress. Sayous in his Esscd sur I'histoire de la religion 
roniaine pendant les guerres puniques gives an interesting 
interpretation of the official attitude. He says : 

Ce meme instinct politique du Senat romain qui lui conseillait 
d'associer les traditions helleniques a la grandeur romaine, lui 
suggerait I'idee d'ouvrir de nouvelles portes a rambition de la 
cite par rintroduction, dans la cite, de religions nouvelles. Les 
deux choses se tenaient, sans que Ton s'en rendit bien compte : 
aller chercher des dieux plus loin, c'etait se preparer de plus 
lointaines conquetes.^ 

The Roman religion had begun to admit the mystic cults 
of the Orient before the end of the third century B. C. 
Cybele, the Magna Mater, brought by the Senate from 
Phrygia in Asia Minor, had been installed with great pomp 
in 204 B. C. This was done in the period of tension near 
the close of the war with Hannibal in accordance with the 
advice of the Sibylline books that " qtiandoque hostis alieni- 
gena terrae Italiae helium intulisset, eum pelli Italia uincique 
posse, si Mater Idaea a Pessinunte Roman aduecta foret.'" 
The goddess, represented by a meteorite, was placed tem- 
porarily in the temple of Victory on the Palatine, but soon 

^ Sayous, Essai sur I'histoire de la religion romaine pendant les 
guerres puniques (Paris, 1887), p. 74. 

113] 113 



1 1 4 SOCIAL AND PRl VA TE LIFE A T ROME [n^ 

after a temple was built for her. From the beginning a 
priest and priestess of Phrygia were attached to the temple 
on the Palatine. It was ordered by a senattis consultum, 
however, that no Roman should take part in her service.^ 

Another foreign worship and one which became especially 
popular, was that of Dionysus, the Bacchanalia. This cult 
was brought to Etruria by a Greek priest, and penetrating 
from there to Rome, quickly increased the number of its 
proselytes until they reached over seven thousand. The 
highly emotional character of the worship contained many 
features repulsive to the more conservative part of the 
population, however, and in i86 B. C. it was officially sup- 
pressed by the Senate as a source of danger to the state. 
The decree nevertheless permitted that if anyone had vowed 
to perform Bacchanalia, he should have the privilege under 
certain restrictions.^ Livy in his report of the events lead- 
ing up to this decree gives a vivid account of the excesses of 
the devotees. Some of the disturbances to which he refers, 
such as the "crepifibus etiam ululatihusque nocturnis," were 
indisputable,^ but in forming an opinion one must make 
allowances for the canonical Roman attitude towards secret 
religions of any kind and remember that much the same 
charges of immorality were later brought against Chris- 
tianity. 

iLiv. XXIX. lo, 14; XXXVI. 36. 3 (191 B. C); Graillot, Le Culte 
de Cybele (Paris, 1912), p. 74; cf. Fowler, The Religious Experience 
of the Roman People (London, 1911), p. 330; iSayous, op. cit., p. 78. 

*Liv. XXXIX. 8, et seq., 17. 6: " coniurasse supra septem tnilia 
uirorum ac tnulierum dicebantur" ; 18. 8-9: "si quis tale sacrum sol- 
lemne et necessarium duceret, nee sine religione et piaculo se id 
omittere posse, apud praetorem urbanum proHteretur, praetor senatum 
consuleret; si ei permissum esset, cum in senatu centum non minus esset, 
ita id sacrum faceret, dum ne plus quinque sacriUcio interessent, neu 
qua pecunia communis neu quis magister sacrorum aut sacerdos esset"',. 
cf. C. I. L. I. 196. 

» Liv. XXXIX. IS. 6. 



115] RELIGION 115 

In Plautus there is amusing reference to the conduct of 
the worshipers. A husband, returning home with his cloak 
and staff missing, attempts to satisfy the questions of his 
spouse by stammered pleas of " the Bacchae . . . the Bac- 
chae!" To this the good lady scornfully and not very 
politely answers: "That's all nonsense and you know it, 
for there are no Bacchae ranging abroad nowadays — I'll 
take oath to that." ^ 

A little later apparently the cult of Isis and Serapis ap- 
peared. They are known to have been introduced into 
South Italy in the first half of the second century B. C. at 
the latest, but it is not certain that they were actually pres- 
ent in Rome at this time. Duruy accepts their presence 
there, basing his conclusion on a passage from Valerius 
Maximus which speaks of an order of the Senate in the 
consulship of L. Aemilius Paulus to destroy the temples of 
Isis and Serapis. This text would of course be conclusive 
if the consul mentioned were positively identified, but there 
were three consuls of this name, and the passage of Vale- 
rius Maximus seems tO' allude rather tO' events of the fol- 
lowing century. Cicero cites verses from Ennius in support 
of his general protest against all diviners of poor quality 
and low standards, but the quotation from the earlier writer 
apparently does not begin until after the phrase of Cicero 
dealing with " Isiacos comectores." ^ Lacking explicit 
proof, therefore, we can only conclude that while a temple 
to these deities may not have actually existed in Rome at 
this time, there was one by the following century, and that 

^ Plaut. Cas. 975, et seq. cf. Ennius, Athamas, Ribb. Frag. Trag. 
pp. 28-9. 

2 Laf aye, Histoire du culte des divinites d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1884), 
p. 40, et seq., cf. C. I. L. I. 577; Duruy, History of Rome (Boston, 1890), 
vol. ii, sec. i, p. 297, cf. Val. Max. I. 3. 3 who apparently alludes to 
events described by iDio Cass. XL. 47 (52 B. C.) ; Cic. de Divin. I. 58. 
132; Sayous, op. cit., p. 75. 



1 1 6 SOCIAL AND PRIVA TE LIFE A T ROME [ 1 1 g 

in any case a number of Romans must have been acquainted 
with the cult. 

In addition to the introduction of such foreign deities 
the traditional Roman religion was being undermined by 
the growth of skepticism. The philosophic teachings of the 
time contributed much to this movement, especially those of 
Carneades. Not only the doctrines of this man were in 
themselves of a character to do this, but what was of greater 
importance, his marked and lasting popularity at Rome and 
the large audiences who crowded to hear him, served to 
give those doctrines wide currency. The Romans them- 
selves came to recognize the destructive effects of his teach- 
ings upon the old religion, and in the following century 
Cicero refers to him as follows : " perturhatricem autem 
harum omnium rerum Academimn, hanc ah Arcesila et Car- 
neade recentem, exoremus ut sileat; nam si inuaserit in 
liaec, quae satis scite nobis instructa et composita uidentur, 
miseras edet ruinas." ^ 

A conception of the skepticism he must have fostered in 
the minds of his hearers may be gained from a considera- 
tion of some of the points he expounded. First by showing 
that all the forms under which we think of God are impos- 
sible, he established that His existence cannot be asserted. 
He then attacked the polytheistic views by maintaining that 
if certain deities are accepted, other and quite ridiculous 
things must also be accepted as deities, reasoning for ex- 
ample that " if Zeus is a God, . . . his brother Poseidon 
must likewise be one, and if he is one, the rivers and streams 
must also l^e Gods. If Helios is a God, the appearance of 
Helios above the earth, or day, must be a God ; and, conse- 
quently, month, year, morning, midday, evening, must all 
be Gods." Carneades also attacked divination. He proved 

' Cic. de Leg. I. 13. 39. 



117] RELIGION iiy 

that no peculiar range of subjects belonged to it, but that in 
all cases where professional judgment' is possible, that of 
experts is superior to that of diviners. " To know acci- 
dental events beforehand," he claimed, " is impossible : it 
is useless to know those that are necessary and unavoidable, 
nay, more, it would even be harmful." He further main- 
tained that no causal connection can be conceived between 
a prophecy and its realization, and when the Stoics pointed 
to fulfilled prophecies, replied that the coincidence was 
accidental, and that many such stories were doubtless false. ^ 

Such ideas attacked the very foundations of religion and 
cult, and in addition the rhetorical and argumentative abil- 
ity which enabled him to uphold the affirmative or negative 
of a proposition with equal strength was confusing to the 
practical Romans. When he spoke one day in highest 
praise, the next in biting criticism of justice, Cato, and 
doubtless many others like him, were bewildered." 

Panaetius, the representative of the Stoics, also fostered 
the spirit of unbelief. He seriously questioned the genuine- 
ness of the art of the soothsayers and the importance of 
such means of divining the will of the gods as oracles, 
dreams, and prophecies. Panaetius, however, did not carry 
his doctrines to the point of absolute negation.^ 

Not satisfied with the natural progress made by foreign 
philosophy in Rome, attempts were even made to give it an 
artificial impetus. In i8i' B. C. workmen who were dig- 
ging at the foot of the laniculum, found two stone chests 
with Greek and Latin inscriptions. One of these chests 

* Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics (London, New York, 1892), 
p. 546, et seq. 

2 Cic. de Rep. III. 6. 9. 

^Cic. Acad. pr. II. 33. 107 cf. de Divin. I. 3. 6: "nee tatnen ausus est 
negare uim esse divinandi, sed dubitare se dixit " ; II. 42. 88 : " Panaetius 
qui unus e Stoicis astrologorum praedicta reiecit." 



1 1 8 SOCIAL AND PRIVA TE LIFE A T ROME [ 1 1 g 

purported to contain the ashes of the ancient king, Numa 
Pompilius, and the other his library. The books were con- 
veniently in Greek and in Latin in spite of the fact that the 
Romans of that distant time were not as yet familiar with 
the art of writing. The urban praetor read the works and 
finding them strongly Pythagorean in character, reported 
them to the Senate as dangerous. By formal decree they 
were therefore ordered to be publicly burned.^ Although 
the effort to gain official sanction for their Pythagorean 
ideas had failed, the well-planned deception is an interesting 
evidence of their development. 

That such philosophic teachings as those of Cameades 
found enthusiastic hearers, that the literary man, Ennius, 
who as the client of Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, represented 
more or less the opinions of his lord, translated a work like 
the Sacred Inscription of Euhemerus, that such a deliberate 
fraud as that just described should be even attempted, all 
these points show that there must have been people at Rome 
who were interested in and wanted such things. It is prob- 
able, however, that the movement was almost exclusively 
confined to the intellectuals, and that the masses still held, 
and were encouraged to hold, the old beliefs. In fact the 
very men who themselves questioned, who themselves real- 
ized like Publius Scipio the futility of dream-omens and 
the like, recognized the value of " instilling in the minds of 
the vulgar " an opinion that they were acting on some 
divine suggestion in forming their designs.^ 

Polybius gives us a good picture of the Roman attitude 
when he tells us that scrupulous fear of the gods, which is 
looked on in other nations as a reproach, is the thing that 
keeps the Roman commonwealth together. This is carried 

'Liv. XL. 29. 3-14. 

=* Polyb. X, 2, 4, S. . ; ! 



1 19] RELIGION 119 

to such an extraordinary height in private and public busi- 
ness, he says, that nothing could exceed it. The object is to 
use it as a check upon the multitude. The author states in 
conclusion, however, that if it were possible to form a state 
wholly of philosophers, perhaps the custom would not be 
necessary.^ This utilitarian attitude towards religion was 
not the view presented by the Stoics in general. It must 
reflect, therefore, the opinion of the prominent Romans 
with whom Polybius was in such close contact. 

The importance which was attached to the taking of aus- 
pices and the interpretation of omens of course gave rise to 
^reat numbers of soothsayers and prophets of all kinds, and 
it is not surprising that the sensible practical citizen did not 
take seriously the more palpable frauds among them. To 
question the authenticity of the haruspices was hardly an 
evidence of irreverence. Cato himself, who openly won- 
dered how one soothsayer could look at another without 
laughing,^ is careful to prescribe in his De re rustics the 
most rigid observance of the traditional rites. 

It was expected that the commander of an army should 
obey the auspices.^ There were instances of open indiffer- 
ence, it is true. Flaminius when he was made consul in 217 
B. C, did not take the regular auspices on the Capitoline 
nor make sacrifice to Jupiter Latialis on the Alban Mount, 
but went at once to join the army, and there is also the 
well-known incident of Publius Claudius Pulcher who threw 
the sacred pullets into the sea before the battle of Drepana.* 

» Polyb. VI. 56. 

* Cato Mem. Diet. 65, ed. Jord. p. 109 : " mirari se aiebat, quod hoh 
rideret haruspex, haruspicem cum uideret." 

* Cf. Cato Orat reliq. I. 15, ed. Jord. p. 35 : " postquam auspicaui atque 
exercitum adduxi pone [uersus] castra hostium." 

*Uy. XXI. 63. 5, XXII. I. 5-7; Polyb. I. 52 cf. Suet. Tib. 2. The 
defeat of both commanders strengthened the popular belief in the 
importance of the auspices. 



I20 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [120 

Much the same sentiment is expressed by Fabius Max- 
imus in the words : " optimis auspiciis ea geri, quae pro 
reipuhlicae salute gerentur; quae contra rempuhlicam fer- 
rentur, contra auspicia ferri." ^ 

The general rule of strict outward conformity to relig- 
ious laws, however, is illustrated in the story of Publius 
Scipio. Scipio, as one of the Salii (one of the three colleges 
of priests by whom the most important sacrifices to the 
gods were offered at Rome) was forbidden to leave for 
thirty days the spot in which the sacred season happened to 
find him. The time arrived just as the army was on the 
point of crossing the sea, and therefore, as we are told, 
Scipio was separated from the legions ; they crossed and he 
remained in Europe, and " the army . . . could take no 
further step, because they were waiting for him." ^ 

Sometimes religious restrictions might be evaded by some 
expedient. This was done in the case of C. Valerius Flac- 
cus who, as flamen of Jupiter, was forbidden to take oath. 
He was designated as curule aedile, and therefore the Sen- 
ate and people granted him permission to have a proxy, 
agreed upon by the consuls, swear in his place. ^ 

The great mass of people still took care to observe care- 
fully all the usages of the ancient faith. The comedies of 
Plautus, which Colin considers so markedly indicative of 
the irreligious spirit of the time,* on the contrary are full 
of evidence of the extent to which religion pervaded the 
daily life of the average citizen. The careful greeting of 
the household gods before setting out or on returning from 

^ Cic. de Senect. 4. 

* Polyb. XXI. 13 cf. the strictness in religious observances remarked 
in Aemilius Paulus, Rut. Aem. Paul. 3, 6. 

'Liv. XXXI. 50. 7, et seq. 

* Colin, Rome et la Grece (Paris, 1905), p. 343, et seq. 



121 ] RELIGION 121 

a journey/ the genuine sorrow with which the youth who 
is leaving his home forever, bids farewell to the gods of his 
family in the words : " Di penates meum parentum, familim 
Lar pater, vohis mando meum parentum rem bene ut tute- 
mini. Ego mihi alios deos penatis persequar, alium La- 
rem," ^ the sacrifices to the Lares of lambs and swine, their 
worship with wreaths, flowers, and incense are apparently 
not mere formal rites, but spring from a fulness of belief in 
the gods and their power. ^ 

One is especially impressed in the comedies by the super- 
stitions which swayed the minds of the people. A religious 
significance was attached to the sill and lintel of the main 
door of the house, and to stumble or to graze one's head 
was an ill-omen.* For a strange black dog to enter the 
house was unlucky, and black in any case was a sign of 
bad fortune and vice versa, ^ Movements of various parts 
of the body, as the raising of the eyebrow or the itching of 
the shoulders, were prognostic.® Not only the evil eye but 
also the mxila manus or evil hand was to be feared, " for 
whenever someone touches you with the evil hand, troubles 
begin." ^ A raven at the right or a woodpecker or a crow 
at the left was a good omen, but on the other hand to see a 

^ Plaut. Mil. Glor. 1339, Bacc. 170, Stick. 534 cf. Enn. Ann. Lib. Inc. 
CXLI. 620. ed. Vahl. p. IJ5: " uosque lares tectum nostrum qui funditus 
curant"; Ter. Phorm. 311, 

* Plaut. Merc. 834-6. 

'Plaut. Rud. 1206-8, Trin. 39, Aul. 23-5. 

* Plaut. Merc. 830, Cas. 815-6 cf. Sextus Turpilius Paraterusa VI 
(4), Ribb. Frag. Com. p. 106; Novius Maccus Exul II (3), Ribb. 
Frag. Com. p. 262. 

'Ter. Phorm. 706; Plaut. Poen. ^l6g. 

' Plaut. Pseud. 107, Pers. 32, Asin. 289. 

'' Plaut. Cure. 180, Amph. 605, Pers. 313. 



122 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [122 

raven at one's left portended evil/ To see a weasel kill a 
mouse was a very favorable sign.^ 

The belief in dreams as foretelling future events was 
very strong, and great significance was attached to the in- 
terpretation of them as messages from the gods.^ Not only 
public auspices were taken, but at this time private auspices 
still existed and were often consulted before individual un- 
dertakings.* 

In all of their relations with the gods the Romans were 
most precise. The gods were addressed according to set 
formulae ; ^ specific phrases of good augury were used ; ® 
and in case the suppliant was in doubt as to the name of the 
god to whom he should make his request, he carefully stip- 
ulated " quisquis es " for fear of making a mistake and 
angering the divinity. So, for example, in Plautus a maiden 
prays: "Quisquis est deu' , ueneror ut nos ex hoc aerumna 
eximat." ^ Vows to the gods were very business-like, and 
exact stipulation was made of what it was desired the god 
should do and of what was to be given him in return.* 

^ Plaut. Asin. 260, Aul. 624, Epid. 183-4. 

* Plaut. Stick. 459-60. 

* Plaut. Cure. 246-50, Merc. 225, et seq., Mil. Glor. 380, et seq., Rud. 
593, et seq., cf. Polyb. X. 4, 5. 

*Cato Orat. reliq. XVIII. i, ed. Jord. p. 47: " domi cum auspicamus" 
cf. Plaut. Epid. 183-4, Pers. 607, Rud. 717, Asin. 259. 
*Cato R. R. CXXXIX, CXLI; Plaut. Merc. 830, et seq., Trin. 8I20. 

* Plaut. Poen. 16. 

' Plaut. Rud. 257 cf. Cato R. R. CXXXIX. 

^Liv. XXXVI. 2. 3-5 gives a notable illustration of this precision; 
" id uotum in haec uerha praeeunte P. Licinio pontiiice maximo consul 
nuncupauit: 'si duellum, quod cum rege Antiocho sumi populus iussit, 
id ex sententia senatus populique Romani confestum erit, turn tibi, 
luppiter, populus Romanus ludos magnos dies decern continuos faciei, 
donaque ad omnia puluinaria dabuntur de pecunia, quantam senatus 
decreuerit, quisquis magistratus eos ludos quando ubique faxit, hi ludi 
recte facti donaque data recte sunto.' " 



123] RELIGION 123 

To consider more generally the religious tone of the 
comedies is profitable in gaining an insight into the mental 
attitude of the people who witnessed them. Colin objects 
that Jupiter is treated with levity in the Pseudolus (840-2), 
where a vainglorious cook proudly boasts that " when all 
my stew-pans are boiling, I uncover them each and every 
one. The smell flies straight up to heaven — why, on this 
smell Jupiter banquets daily !" Can a passage of this kind, 
however, which is not taken seriously even by the one who 
utters it, counteract the impression made by the prologue of 
the Rudens, which presents Jupiter with a majesty almost 
monotheistic ? ^ The same idea of a watchful deity who 
rewards the good and punishes evil-doers is found in the 
Captivi.^ 

There are certain passages in Plautus which might be 
considered irreverent, as when Sosia in the Amphitruo sug- 
gests that the sun-god must have been drinking too much 
and fallen asleep, or when in the Asinaria a slave who is 
planning a theft, takes the auspices to see if they are favor- 
able. Colin believes that such passages accustomed the 
people to ridicule the gods, but it is a question whether this 
conclusion is justified. In the first place the passages which 
he mentions are greatly outnumbered by passages which 
reveal unmistakably both reverence and respect. Then, too, 
the characters who utter the sentiments to which he refers 
(Amph. 282, Pseud. 840-2, Pers. 251 et seq., Adn. 259, 
Epid. 183-4, Trin. 39 et seq.) are in nearly every instance 

' Colin, loc. cit. cf. Plaut. Rud. i, et seq. 
* Plaut. Capt. 3 1 3-5 : 

" est profecto deu', qui quae nos gerimus auditque et uidet: 
is, uti tti me hie habueris, proinde ilium illic curauerit; 
bene merenti bene profuerit, male merenti par erit." 
Cf. Ennius Ann. Lib. Inc. CV. 580, ed. Vahl. p. 107: " diuum hominum- 
que pater rex " ; ibid. LXXI. 542, p. 99 ; Thyestes V. 345, ed. Vahl. p. 184. 



124 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [124 

slaves, who, as they were probably foreigners, did not ex- 
press perhaps, and were not expected to express, the senti- 
ments of a true Roman. 

In the passage from the Trinummus a man, after a for- 
mal prayer to the gods for the protection of his house, 
closes with a wish that he might get rid of his wife. This, 
however, is hardly more than another instance of the oft- 
repeated railing against marriage which is found through- 
out the comedies. As to the effect of its being joined, as 
Colin points out, to the most solemn and official formula, it 
is possible that the Romans, who had definite formulae not 
only for prayer but for almost all legal and social dealings 
with each other, did not attach quite so much significance 
to a formula, and that its use in this way was not so repug- 
nant even to the really pious. 

Furthermore, admitting that the gods are in some cases 
alluded to lightly in the comedies, it must be remembered 
that the ancient conception of the gods was different from 
ours. The religious myths pictured the deities with more 
or less human passions and foibles, and therefore an allu- 
sion, for example, to Jupiter's enjoyment of the appetizing 
odors from an earthly banquet did not shock the Roman 
audience as it would a modem one. 

Finally, in any case and at any time the presentations of 
the stage cannot be taken as representative of the moral and 
religious attitude of a community. They are inclined to be, 
if anything, below the standard. The stage, and especially 
the comic stage, aims to amuse or to appeal to a certain ele- 
ment ; the actors voice sentiments in keeping with the char- 
acters which they portray, and we should not judge the 
Romans wholly by their comedies any more than we would 
wish some of the productions of the present day to serve 
as criterions of our own standards. A people whose theater 
expressed such sentiments as " qui deorum consilia culpet 



125] RELIGION 125 

sHdtus inscitusque sit," a people of whom Polybius tells us 
before the battle of Cannae that 

all the oracles preserved at Rome were in everybody's mouth ; 
and every temple and house was full of prodigies and miracles : 
in consequence of which the city was one scene of vows, sacri- 
fices, supplicatory processions, and prayers. For the Romans 
. . . look upon no ceremony of that kind ... as unbecom- 
ing or beneath their dignity,^ 

that people taken as a whole is not to be considered as har- 
boring strongly irreligious or irreverent tendencies. 

One point, however, which does suggest that the respect 
attached to religious functions was declining, is that we find 
in this period important offices given to mere youths. In 
212 B. C. from the three candidates for the place of pontifex 
maximus P. Licinius, who was about to be candidate for 
the office of curule aedile, was chosen, although for one 
hundred and twenty years the rule had been observed with 
only one exception that no citizen was selected as pontifex 
maximus " qui sella curuli non sedisset." A few years 
later, in 204 B. C, Ti. Sempronius was made an augur at a 
very early age, and the following year Q. Fabius Maximus 
became augur when he was still so young that when he died 
in 196 B. C. he had not yet filled any magistracy.' 

As the games dedicated to the various deities or those 
given by private individuals in honor of the deceased were 
an integral part of the religion of the Romans, it is neces- 
sary before leaving the question of religion to give some 
slight account of the changes which were taking place in 
this sphere. Up to 169 B. C. the custom of bringing wild 

iPlaut. Mil. Glor. 736; Polyb. III. 112. 

"Liv. XXV. 5. 1-4; XXIX. 38. 7; XXX. 26. 10 cf. XXXIII. 42. 6: 
" Q. Fabius Maximus augur mortuus est admodum adulescens, prius- 
quam ullum magistratum caperet." 



126 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [126 

beasts together from a great number of countries was not 
yet in vogue, and the aim was rather to produce variety in 
the exhibitions/ In fact, the importation ta Italy of feroc- 
ious animals from Africa had been formally prohibited by 
the Senate. This decree was abrogated, however, and in 
168 B. C. in the aedileship of Scipio Nasica and P. Len- 
tulus they presented sixty-three panthers and forty bears 
and elephants in the Circus,^ From that time on the num- 
ber continued to increase. 

Not only the character of the entertainments was be- 
coming more magnificent, but the number of festivals was 
increasing. Festivals which had formerly been held only 
occasionally were tending to become permanently fixed. In 
202 B. C. the Cerialia were definitely established although 
they had originated long before; in 191 B. C. the Megalesia 
were instituted; and the Floralia, instituted in 238 B. C, 
were revived in 173 B. C* 

Greenidge in his consideration of this subject makes the 
statement that it " proved that the Roman was willing to 
bend his austere religion to purposes of gratification, when 
he could afford the luxury." * The funeral games naturally 
are not to be included without reserve in this category, as 
the splendor with which they were celebrated was looked 
on largely as a tribute of honor to the deceased. As to the 

^Liv. XLIV. 9. 4: " mos erat turn, nondum hoc effusione inducta 
bestiis omnium gentium circum conplendi, uaria spectaculorum con- 
quirere genera." 

*Plin. H. N. VIII. 17 (24). 64: " senatus consultum fuit uetus ne 
liceret Ajricanas in Italiam aduehere, contra hoc tulit ad populum Cn. 
AuMius tribunus plehis, permisitque circensium gratia inportare"; 
Liv. XLIV. 18. 8. 

'Cerialia: Uv. XXX. 39. 8; Megalesia: Liv. XXXVI. 36. 4; Graillot, 
op. cit. pp. 81-2 points out that these were the only games at Rome 
which bore an exotic name; Floralia: Plin. H. N. XVIII. 29 (69). 
286 cf. Sayous, op. cit., p. 69. 

* Greenidge, History of Rome (New York, 1905), vol. i, p. 25. 



127] RELIGION 127 

public games their magnificence was in part a tribute to the 
god and in part a sanctioned and legitimate method of ob- 
taining for the officials in charge the favor and support of 
the people. The growing extravagance of presentation, 
moreover, did not imply a correspondingly larger outlay on 
the part of the state as a whole. About the time of the first 
Punic War the rule had been established that the expenses 
of the public games were not tO' be met exclusively by the 
treasury, and it was only occasionally that the people them- 
selves contributed.^ 

The change in the character of the games was in keeping 
with the changes seen in all phases of social and private life 
as an attendant result of the increase of riches and the de- 
sire for ostentation. As the wealthy were furnishing their 
homes more luxuriously, multiplying the number of their 
slaves and attendants, engaging in large commercial ven- 
tures and the like, so in their presentation of the games they 
inclined, as is to be expected, tO' greater pretentiousness 
without any thought of lowering the dignity of their re- 
ligion in so doing. 

^Dion. VII. 71; Plin. H. N. XXXIII. 10 (47). 138: "populus Romanus 
spargere coepit Sp. Postumio Q. Marcio cos.; tanta abundantia pecunia 
erat, ut earn conferret L. Scipioni, ex qua is ludos fecit." 



CHAPTER VIII 

Morals and Character 

Now that the principal phases of Roman social and pri- 
vate life have been considered and the extent to which each 
was affected by the influences of the time, it is interesting in 
conclusion to consider in the same way another topic which 
although less concrete is of great importance for a clear 
comprehension of Roman life as a whole. This topic is the 
Roman character as such. Any discussion of it naturally 
involves the question whether or not the close contact with 
Greek ideas induced corruption. It is not to be denied that 
there was a certain deterioration, but how lasting were its 
results and how far it was due to Greek influence are open 
to debate. 

From the sources it is possible to gain a fair idea of the 
essential characteristics of the Roman of the time. Respect 
for the gods, respect for the great ancestors of his house, 
respect for his parents was an integral part of his life. His 
most striking trait, however, the one which pervaded all 
religious, social, and business intercourse, was his precise 
formality. The Roman was thoroughly business-like. His 
dealings with the gods were on a strict basis of give and 
take, and the comedies abound in specific formulae for 
practically every act of daily life — of emancipation, of 
politeness, of good augury, of leave-taking, of betrothal, of 
giving money, of concluding a bargain, and of taking oath.^ 

^Formula of politeness Plaut. Epid. 460-1: " uolo te uerhis pauculis \ 
si tibi molestum non est " ; of good augury Poen. 16 : " boniim factum 
128 [128 



129] MORALS AND CHARACTER 1 29 

The people of Plautus swear by the objects dear to them — 
so, for example, a cook swears by Lauerna, the goddess of 
thieves, " ita me bene amet Lauerna," and a parasite by 
" sancta Saturitas." ^ An oath was looked upon as sacred. 
Even a meretrix boasts that whatever the faults and vices 
of her class, no one can accuse them of breaking a iiis 
iurandum, and words cannot be found to express the con- 
tempt and amazement felt for the man who did not keep 
his solemn oath.^ A striking instance of the binding force 
of the oath occurred at the beginning of the second Punic 
War. Just as the soldiers were ready to embark, the news 
arrived of the entrance of Hannibal into Italy. The consul, 
realizing that his men could make their way more effec- 
tively as individuals than in the mass, called the soldiers 
together, administered the oath to them, and then dis- 
missed them with orders to reassemble at Ariminum at a 
certain time. On the day appointed " his men met Tiberius 
at Ariminum, according to their oath." " 

As has already been mentioned, the Romans were very- 
precise in all money matters, both in purely commercial 
transactions and in their dealings with friends and relations. 
Scipio, who paid over a dowry before it was due in accord- 
ance with the sentiment that " close reckoning and legal 
exactness were for strangers," so astonished the recipients 
that although they were men " of as high character as any 

esse " ; of leave-taking Ter. Eun. 191 : " num quid uis aliud " ; of giv- 
ing money Plaut. Bacc. 880-3: " dabinf . . dabiintur" ; of concluding a 
bargain Stick. 565: "fiat"; of taking oath Mil. Glor. 501, Capt. ^77, 
Ter. Phorm. 165 : " ita me anient ..." 

^ Plaut. Aul. 445, Capt. S77. 

^ Plaut. Cist. 495 cf. 500-3; Ter. Ad. 306, et seq.: "quern neque fides 
neque ius iurandum neque illum^ misericordia \ repressit neque reilexit 
. . . I . . . non intellego satis quae loquitur " ; for further instances of the 
binding force of the oath cf. Plaut. Bacc. 1025, et seq., Merc. 420-2. 

» Polyb. III. 61, 68. 



130 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [130 

at Rome,'' according to Polybius, " they returned home in 
silence, quite confounded at the magnanimity of Scipio." 
The author is careful to tell us, however, that Scipio culti- 
vated lofty sentiments towards money and " a higher stand- 
ard of disinterestedness than other people." ^ 

■As a rule, the Romans were honest. The frequently 
quoted passage of Polybius (VI. 56) contrasts the hon- 
esty of the Romans with the dishonesty of the Greeks, but 
his statements cannot be taken absolutely as a criterion 
in view of the differences in the innate character of the two 
peoples. The Greeks were apt to infer guilt without suffi- 
cient proof, whereas the Romans were not only less sus- 
picious, but also found it much more difficult to convict an 
official. It is interesting to note, however, that the Romans 
themselves complacently regarded themselves as superior to 
the Greeks in honesty, and a synonym for complete absence 
of credit was " Graeca Ude mercari." " Polybius speaks 
especially of the high standards of the Romans in the period 
before the foreign wars, but he states his belief that the 
majority of men at Rome are still " capable of preserving 
their honesty," " and as notable examples gives Aemilius 
Paulus and Scipio Aemilianus. 

The element of character which was regarded by the 
Romans as most important for public life was courage, and 
the penalty for desertion of one's post was death. In a few 
instances we hear of soldiers, and at Cannae even of a com- 
manding officer, becoming panic-stricken in the face of new 
methods of fighting or of overwhelming odds, but such 
cases were in the minority. On the contrary, heroism was 
displayed again and again, and sometimes exaggerated to 
the point of recklessness. That the Romans of the Punic 

' Polyb. XXXII. 12, 13. 
* Plaut. Asin. 199. 
3 Polyb. XVIII. 35- 



131] MORALS A ND CHAR A CTER 1 3 1 

War period, moreover, whether saldiers or civilians, could 
be depended on for public spirit, is shown in their answer 
to the appeal for a fleet. At this time, as there was no 
money in the treasury to defray the expenses, private asso- 
ciations undertook the construction of two hundred quin- 
queremes, to be paid for when the Romans should be vic- 
torious/ The refusal of the Romans under any conditions 
to admit themselves vanquished, is signalized by Polybius 
as " a peculiarity . . . which they have inherited from their 
ancestors." ^ 

It must not be imagined that every Roman was as ideal 
as the Scipios or Aemilius Paulus, the three men used 
almost exclusively by Polybius as illustrations. Even this 
writer, who speaks so highly of Roman integrity, himself 
gives instances to the contrary such as a victorious general 
induced by bribes to show leniency towards the conquered, 
or the Senate judiciously persuaded to espouse a question- 
able cause." 

Bribery on a smaller scale often found its way into the 
elections. The laws against it, in spite of the death penalty 
attached,* were more or less disregarded, and there was 
frequent necessity for new enactments. A law against 
ambitus (illegal canvassing) existed in the time of Plautus; 
another was proposed in 181 B. C., and still another sev- 
eral years later. ^ Plautus in the Trinummus comments on 
existing conditions in the words : '' ambitio iam more sanc- 
tast, liberast a legibtts." *^ 

^Polyb. XXXII. 15; I. 17; I. 39, et seq., 53, III. 84-6, 116; heroism 
cf. I. 37, HI. 75, X. 32, et seq. ; fleet I. 59. 

* Polyb. XXVII. 8 cf. XXIV. 12. 

» Polyb. III. 96, II. 31, XXXIII. 15-8. 

* Polyb. VI. S6. 

5 Plaut. Amph. 71 ; Liv. XL. 19. 11. Ep. XLVII. 
^Plaut. Trin. 1033. 



132 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [132 

The fondness of the Romans for money contributed 
especially to weaken their moral resistance to opportunities 
for pecuniary gain, even when those opportunities were not 
strictly legal. This fact is evidenced not only in the matter 
of bribery but in other matters as well. To cheat the state 
apparently did not greatly trouble their conscience. The 
evasion of the law by the financiers in their exaction of 
usurious interest has already been mentioned, and some- 
times powerful speculators went still further. Livy gives 
us a striking illustration of this : as the state assumed any 
risk of loss in contracts for army supplies, the scheme was 
not unknown of loading a ship with a more or less worth- 
less cargo, deliberately sinking it in mid-sea, and then col- 
lecting a large sum for the loss of the supposedly valuable 
commodities on board. This practice of false shipwreck, 
however, does not imply a callousness on the part of the 
perpetrators as to the possible loss of life, for the sailors 
were taken off in boats prepared for the purpose.^ To de- 
fraud the state on such a large scale could not, of course, 
be a very widespread practice, but the principle extended to 
smaller things. For example, there were many highly rep- 
utable Romans who did not scruple to divert the public water 
to their own private use.^ 

It was inevitable that the rapid and enormous influx of 
wealth into Rome from her foreign conquests should dis- 
turb the social and moral equilibrium. Polybius recognizes 
this condition, and says that when a commonwealth, after 
warding off great dangers, has reached a high point of 
prosperity and undisputed power, by the lengthened contin- 
uance of great wealth in it the manner of life of its citizens 

iLiv. XXV. 3. 10, II. 

'Liv. XXXIX. 44. 4. This practise among the Romans may be 
paralleled to some extent by the attitude of many citizens of to-day 
towards certain public service corporations. 



133] MORALS AND CHARACTER 133 

will become more extravagant, and rivalry for office and in 
other spheres of activity will become too strenuous.^ This 
was precisely the case in Rome. As early as 200 B. C, 
according to Livy, the people were wearied by the length 
and severity of the war against Hannibal, and disgusted 
with toils and dangers,^ and after the battle of Pydna had 
definitely established their power, the Romans might well 
be expected to seek relaxation. 

For a time this was doubtless carried to extremes. Plau- 
tus is not without reason in saying : '' nam nunc lenonum 
et scortorum plus est fere quam olim muscarum est quom 
caletur maxume," and Polybius paints in vivid colors a pic- 
ture of the average Roman youth wasting himself " on 
favorite youths, ... on mistresses, on banquets enlivened 
with poetry and wine, and all the extravagant expenditure 
they entailed." " Scipio, an exception to the general rule, 
refuses a beautiful maiden who is offered to him, but even 
he admits that such interests, out of place in times of activ- 
ity, are most agreeable and permissible in times of relaxa- 
tion. Much the same thought, expressed as it is in the 
comedies, doubtless influenced many a young Roman.* 

In any case a strong current of reaction soon set in. 
Practical measures were taken to stem the tide of extrava- 
gance. In 182 B. C. the lex Orchia was passed limiting the 
number of guests, and twenty years later the lex Fannia 
limited the expenditures permissible for such purposes.® 
The center of the resistance was Cato, who inveighed so 

^ Polyb. VI. 57. 

* Liv. XXXI. 6. 3, 4 : " id cum fessi diuturnitate et grauitate belli sua 
sponte homines taedio periculorum laborumque fecerant." 

*Plaut. True. 64-5; Polyb. XXXII. 11. 

* Polyb. X. 19 cf. Plaut. Bace. 416, et seq.; Ter. Ad. loi, et seq. 

5 Macrob. Sat. III. 17. cf. Cato Orat. reliq. XXVII. 4, ed. Jord. p. 53. 



134 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [134 

fruitlessly against the repeal of the Oppian law/ but other 
eminent Romans were equally strict. As examples, Q. Fa- 
bius Maximus, who reproached Scipio for his fondness for 
things Greek, L. Valerius Flaccus, the colleague of Cato in 
the censorship, Tiberius Gracchus, the father of the famous 
tribunes, may be mentioned. The last-named, in fact, gained 
such a reputation for severity, that when he was censor, the 
citizens put out their lights so that they might not be sur- 
prised prolonging their banquets and parties until too late 
an hour.^ 

Furthermore, these eminent men were not alone in the 
stand they took, but were backed in their efforts by popular 
sentiment. The attitude of the people is clearly shown by 
the fact that they voted to Cato in witness of their approval 
of his actions a statue in the temple of Hygeia.^ Whatever 
the force attained by the tide of extravagant luxury, there- 
fore, it is evident that the Romans as a whole were not 
overwhelmed by it nor oblivious to the dangers it presented. 
In every class were men who saw the consequences it might 
entail. Ennius, the client of the eminent M. Fulvius No- 
bilior, reflects in his Annals the principles of Cato in the 
words, " moribiis antiquis res stat romana uirisque," and 
Plautus, the spokesman of the masses, notwithstanding the 
fact that his plays are generally taken as indisputable evi- 
dence of the moral looseness of the time, also sighs for the 
" mores bonos." * 

As to the " injurious " effects of Hellenism, it must be 
remembered that the contact of Rome with Greek civiliza- 

1 Liv. XXXIV. 2-4. 

■■* Liv. XXIX. 19; XXXIX. 41. i: " illo uno collega castigare se noua 
Hagitia et priscos reuocare mores posse"; Plut. Tib. Grace. 14. 

' Plut. Cai. maj. 19. 

* Ennius Ann. Lib. Inc. XXXVII, ed. Vahl. p. 91; Plaut. Trin. 28: 
" nam hie nimium morbus mores inuasit bonos." 



135] MORALS AND CHARACTER 135 

tion can in no way be dated from this period. From earliest 
times Rome had been in touch with the Greek cities of 
South Italy, and had derived much of her culture from 
them. Whether or not the introduction on a large scale of 
Greek educational and philosophic ideas in this period had 
a harmful effect cannot be considered absolutely. It de- 
pended entirely upon the character of the individual. In 
some cases, of course, the admiration for Greek learning 
was carried so far that it was ridiculous, as in Aulus Post- 
umius Albinus. Unable to discriminate, as we are told, he 
imitated all the worst points in Greek fashions, and attempt- 
ing a poem and formal history in that tongue, apologized if 
he did not have a complete command of Greek idiom and 
method.^ 

Even the most eminent and admirable men of the time, 
however, were interested in such things. Cato himself 
studied under a Pythagorean philosopher, spoke Greek 
readily, and approved of a reasonable familiarity with Greek 
literature; ^ Aemilius Paulus and Tiberius Gracchus both 
gave Greek philosophers a share in the education of their 
children; Flamininus spoke Greek and set up a statue to 
himself in Rome with a Greek inscription; ^ Scipio was 
notably fond of things Greek.* Moreover, as has already 
been pointed out, the influence of Greek philosophic ideas, 
harmful or otherwise, was largely limited to the intellectuals. 
The people as a whole cared little for philosophy, and re- 
fused to take it seriously. ° 

^ Polyb. XXXIX. 12 cf. A. Postutnii Albini Graeci Annates I, 
Peter, Hist. Rom. Reliq., vol. i, p. 53. 

* Plut. Cat. maj. 2, 12; Cato Libri ad Marcum Filiuin I, ed, Jord. p. 77: 
" bonuni sit illorum litteras inspicere, non perdiscere." 

' Plut. Flatnin. 1, 6. 

*Liv. XXIX. 19. 

' Plaut. Pseud. 974: " saluos sum, iam philosophatur"; Capt. 284: 
" salua res est, philosophatur quoque iam, non menda.r modo est," 
Merc. 145-7 ^/- Ter. And. 55-7. 



136 SOCIAL AND PRIVATE LIFE AT ROME [136 

The difference between the tastes of the two nations was 
too great for Greek culture to have a very great attraction 
for the masses. The humor of the Romans was broader 
and cruder than that of the Greeks, and we are told that 
the comic poets in their adaptations of the Greek plays 
" facetiis afque luminibus obsolescunt." An example of 
this is seen in the Plocium of Caecilius, where he introduces 
a coarse jest not found in the original piece/ For purely 
Greek spectacles the populace had little appreciation. On 
one occasion the most famous artists were imported from 
Greece for the triumphal games, but the attention of the 
audience could not be held by their musical skill alone, and 
in order to win favor they had to enliven their performance 
with a sham boxing-match. - 

The average Roman viewed Greek ideas and habits with 
distrust. Probably many a Roman, sighing like Lycon in 
the Bacchides of Plautus,^ for the good old days, lamented 
the change in the system of education, and failed to appre- 
ciate the advantages of the broader cultural training it im- 
plied. In the common speech of the day, " to live a Greek 
life," pergraecari, was synonymous with reprehensible lux- 
ury and license.* The attitude of the majority of Romans 
towards the Greeks was very similar perhaps to that of 
many estimable people of the present day towards New 
York. To them the name " New York " conveys imme- 
diately the suggestion of prodigality that " pergraecari " 
did to the conservative Roman, and just as we are ready to 
recognize this modern attitude as unduly emphasizing a 

^Aul. Gell. II. 2^ cf. Caecil. Stat Plocium II (2), Ribb. Frag. Com. 
p. 63: "dot ieiuna anima. nil peccat de sauio: \ ut deuomas uolt quod 
forts potaueris" cf. Plaut. Merc. 574. 

^Polyb. XXX. 14, 

' Plaut. Bacc. 419, et seq. 

* Plaut. True. 88, Most. 22, Bacc. 743. 



137] MORALS AND CHARACTER 137 

single point of unfavorable criticism without making proper 
allowance for individual tendencies, so we must in the case 
of the ancient. Scipio, and later the two Gracchi, as con- 
spicuous products of the new training and intimately asso- 
ciated in their youth with Greek philosophers, effectively 
dispel the belief that the ideas being introduced into educa- 
tion from contact with Greece, were in themselves harmful. 
The choice made by the Romans from the world of Greek 
art, culture, and luxury thus opened to them, rested en- 
tirely with the Romans themselves. In proportion as the 
civilized man is superior to the barbarian, the Romans were 
not corrupted but improved by their contact with Hellenism. 



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VITA 

Georgia Williams Leffingwell was born in Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, March 21, 1893. She received her pre- 
liminary training in the PubHc Schools of Hartford. In 
191 3 she was graduated with honors from Vassar College, 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from which she received the degree 
of A. B. and in 191 5 the degree of A. M. She spent the 
years 19 15-8 as a graduate student in Columbia University 
and attended the seminars of Professor Botsford and Mr. 
Caldwell and the lectures of Professors Robinson, Lock- 
wood!. Shepherd, Giddings and Hazen. During the year 
191 7-8 she held a Sutro Fellowship from Vassar College. 
She is a member of the society of Phi Beta Kappa. 

141 






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